Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A bay window projecting from an upper floor, supported from below with corbels or brackets.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A portico, recess, or small room forming a projection from a room or building, as a hall or chapel, in the form of a large bay or recessed window, and often more richly furnished or more private than the rest of the room or building, formerly used as a boudoir, closet, and separate apartment for various purposes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A gallery for minstrels.
  • noun obsolete A small apartment next a hall, where certain persons were accustomed to dine; a sort of recess.
  • noun (Arch.) A bay window. See Bay window.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun architecture A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window.
  • noun obsolete A gallery for minstrels.
  • noun obsolete A small apartment next to a hall, used for dining.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a projecting bay window corbeled or cantilevered out from a wall

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French oriol, porch, from Medieval Latin oriolum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French oriol ("gallery, corridor"), Late Latin oriolum ("portico, hall"), probably from Latin aureolus ("gilded"), applied to an apartment decorated with gilding. See oriole.

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Examples

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  • a1400 Prose Life Christ (Pepys) 21 And Jesus was tho a slepe bihinde in the schipp in an oriole. 1440 Promp. Parv. (Harl. 221) 369 Oryel of a wyndowe, cancellus, intendicula.

    May 28, 2008