buttress

4 synonyms for buttress, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — A support made of brick, concrete or stone, set against a structure to hold it up.

Synonyms

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

brace bluff

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

buttressing crag

Synonyms by Meaning

1. noun

A support made of brick, concrete or stone, set against a structure to hold it up.

“It was decided, therefore, to build eight concrete buttresses from the new strengthening work to safeguard the general stability of the wall along the length where the greatest movement had taken place.”

buttressing brace

2. noun

A part of a mountain or rock face that sticks out sharply.

“All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.”

crag bluff

Etymology

It comes from Old French ars bouterez (noun, literally "supporting arcs"), from bouterez (adjective), the oblique plural of bouteret (rare in the singular), from Frankish *bôtan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną ("to push"). It is ultimately cognate with beat.

Full origin of buttress →

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brace bluff crag

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