Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In book-decoration, an ornamental piece or pattern often inserted at the foot of a page when the letterpress stops short of the bottom, as at the end of a chapter.
- noun Hence In other decorative work, an arabesque of a similar form.
Etymologies
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Examples
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The Lincoln Imp, who sits enthroned at the foot of a cul-de-lampe in the choir, is so familiar to every child, now, through his photographs and casts, that it is hardly necessary to describe him.
Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance Julia de Wolf Gibbs Addison
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This leads me naturally to thank you for the sweet little cul-de-lampe to the entail it is equal to any thing you have done in perspective and for taste but the boy is too large.
The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2 Horace Walpole 1757
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