vault

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vɒlt/, /vɔːlt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɑlt/, /vɔlt/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɔːlt, Rhymes: -ɒlt
• Homophone: volt (in some accents)
• The l was originally suppressed in pronunciation.

Borrowed from Old French volte (modern voûte), from Vulgar Latin *volta < *volvita or *volŭta, a regularization of Latin volūta (compare modern volute (“spire”)), the past participle of volvere (“roll, turn”). Cognate with Spanish vuelta (“turn”). Doublet of volute.

A multiple-exposure image of a gymnast performing a vault on a vaulting table

vault (plural vaults)

1. An arched masonry structure supporting and forming a ceiling, whether freestanding or forming part of a larger building.

   The decoration of the vault of Sainte-Chapelle was much brighter before its 19th-century restoration.

   • Gray

     the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault

2. Any arched ceiling or roof.
3. (figuratively) Anything resembling such a downward-facing concave structure, particularly the sky and caves.

   The stalactites held tightly to the cave's vault.

   • Shakespeare

     that heaven's vault should crack

   • Sandys

     the silent vaults of death

   • 1985, Bible (NJB), Genesis, 1:6:

     God said, ‘Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.’

4. The space covered by an arched roof, particularly underground rooms and (Christianity, obsolete) church crypts.
5. Any cellar or underground storeroom.
   • Jonathan Swift

     to banish rats that haunt our vault

6. Any burial chamber, particularly those underground.

   Family members had been buried in the vault for centuries.

7. The secure room or rooms in or below a bank used to store currency and other valuables; similar rooms in other settings.

   The bank kept their money safe in a large vault.

8. (gymnastics) A piece of apparatus used for performing jumps.
9. (gymnastics) A gymnastic movement performed on this apparatus.
10. (computing) An encrypted digital archive.
11. (obsolete) An underground or covered conduit for water or waste; a drain; a sewer.
12. (obsolete) A underground or covered reservoir for water or waste; a cistern; a cesspit.
13. (obsolete, euphemistic) A room employing a cesspit or sewer: an outhouse; a lavatory.

• (outhouse or lavatory): See Thesaurus:bathroom
• (gymnastic apparatus): vaulting table

vault (third-person singular simple present vaults, present participle vaulting, simple past and past participle vaulted)

1. (transitive) To build as, or cover with a vault.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     The shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley.

Borrowed from Middle French volter (“to turn or spin around; to frolic”), borrowed from Italian voltare, itself from a Vulgar Latin frequentative form of Latin volvere; later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.

vault (third-person singular simple present vaults, present participle vaulting, simple past and past participle vaulted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To jump or leap over.

   The fugitive vaulted over the fence to escape.

• vaulter
• vaulting

vault (plural vaults)

1. An act of vaulting, formerly (chiefly) by deer; a leap or jump.
2. (equestrianism) Synonym of volte: a circular movement by the horse.
3. (gymnastics) An event or performance involving a vaulting horse.

• pole vault
• vaulting horse

• vault on Wikipedia.Wikipedia