Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To provide or cover with a ceiling.
  • transitive verb Nautical To provide (a ship) with interior planking or lining.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A canopy of state.
  • To canopy; provide with a canopy or hangings.
  • To overlay or cover the interior upper surface of (a room or building) with wood, plaster, cloth, or other material. See ceiling, 2.
  • To wainscot; also, by extension, to floor.

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

  • transitive verb To overlay or cover the inner side of the roof of; to furnish with a ceiling.
  • transitive verb To line or finish a surface, as of a wall, with plaster, stucco, thin boards, or the like.

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

  • verb To line or finish a surface, as of a wall, with plaster, stucco, thin boards, or the like.
  • noun poetic a ceiling

Etymologies

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

[Middle English celen, probably from Old French *celer, from Latin caelāre, to carve, from caelum, chisel; see Caelum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to Latin celare ("to hide").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French ciel ("heavens"), from Latin caelum.

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Examples

  • "We're locked in some kind of holding ceil, probably awaiting orders."

    Finnegan teoriza la practica de cuerdas Carlos G.Tonda 2010

  • The owls knew how to launch their bombs upward against an opponent pinned against the ceil - ing, so "upsmanship" was not the only strategy.

    Here There Are Monsters 2010

  • All modern CPUs have built-in round, ceil, and floor functions and typically their behaviors are configurable though you may have to operate at the assembly level.

    Waldo "Slices Salami" « Climate Audit 2007

  • Net languages, the round function by default rounds towards zero ie floor when +ve, ceil when -ve.

    Waldo "Slices Salami" « Climate Audit 2007

  • Most newer CPUs have various built in functions for round, floor and ceil all of which are variants of the standard round we all know.

    Your Sunday Crossword Puzzle « Climate Audit 2007

  • From dirty flock bedding, drip dropping through the ceil — ing, with two sisters of charities on the front steps and three eva — cuan cleansers at the back gaze, single box and pair of chairs

    Finnegans Wake 2006

  • Buried in the ceil-ing, dehumidifiers hummed efficiently, working around the clock to give the station's living quarters the desic-cated feel of the deserts of home.

    The Howling Stones Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1997

  • Eight dormer * ndows jutted out of the sloped ceil -

    the secret sense Tan, Amy 1995

  • The creatures had no visible teeth, and clung to the ceil-ing of the shelter with six stubby legs.

    Mid Flinx Foster, Alan Dean 1995

  • He found himself in a bright two-bedroom apartment with typically low ceil - ings and small rooms.

    Second Skin Lustbader, Eric 1995

Comments

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  • "MYRRHINA: My chamber is ceiled with cedar and odorous with myrrh."

    - Oscar Wilde, 'La Sainte Courtisane'.

    June 6, 2009