vault
/vɑlt/ noun C1- 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.
- Any arched ceiling or roof.
- Anything resembling such a downward-facing concave structure, particularly caves and the sky or firmament. · The stalactites held tightly to the cave's vault.
- The space covered by an arched roof, particularly underground rooms and (Christianity, obsolete) church crypts.
- Any cellar or underground storeroom.
- Any burial chamber, particularly those underground. · Holonyms: catacomb, cuniculus· Near-synonyms: crypt, mausoleum
- The secure room or rooms in or below a bank used to store currency and other valuables; similar rooms in other settings.
- Any archive of past content.
Plural vaults
From the library
“Whatever may happen, Valentine, do not be alarmed; though you suffer; though you lose sight, hearing, consciousness, fear nothing; though you should awake and be ignorant where you are, still do not fear; even though you should find yourself in a sepulchral vault or coffin.
To me, with my nerves worked up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the vault.
Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all round with crates and massive boxes.
About ten feet from the spot where he and the stranger were, the roof had given way, leaving a large round opening, through which might be seen the blue vault of heaven, thickly studded with stars.
Other matches
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