Definitions

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

  • noun Either of two moldings, cyma recta or cyma reversa, having an undulating or S-shaped profile, used especially in classical architecture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In architecture, a member or molding of the cornice, of which the profile is an ogee, or curve of contrary flexure.
  • noun In botany, same as cyme.
  • noun [capitalized] Same as Cuma, 2.

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

  • noun (Arch.) A member or molding of the cornice, the profile of which is wavelike in form.
  • noun (Bot.) A cyme. See Cyme.
  • noun a cyma, hollow in its upper part and swelling below.
  • noun a cyma swelling out on the upper part and hollow below.

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

  • noun architecture A moulding of the cornice, wavelike in form, whose outline consists of a concave and a convex line; an ogee.
  • noun botany = cyme

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

  • noun (architecture) a molding for a cornice; in profile it is shaped like an S (partly concave and partly convex)

Etymologies

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

[New Latin cȳma, from Greek kūma, wave, cyma, from kuein, to swell; see keuə- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • There is one very curious passage in which he is talking about a very pretty girl, and wants to make it plain that she had a very beautiful mouth, and he says, "Her mouth was of that exquisite curve which is termed the cyma recta, or the 'Ogee arch.'"

    Thomas Hardy, The Novelist 1924

  • The ornament about this window, especially that in the long panel below it and upon the cyma of the soffit above, is Byzantine in character, while the columns, with the exception of the capital of the one at the left, are much more Romanesque.

    The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, Volume 01, No. 04, April 1895 Byzantine-Romanesque Windows in Southern Italy Various

  • The corresponding cyma was of the same material and similarly decorated.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • The parapet above, including its cyma and corona, is one half the height of the parapet below.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

  • Furthermore just such cyma pieces have been discovered belonging to other structures in Olympia and amid the pre-Persian ruins on the Acropolis of Athens.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • (Laughter) I do not know whether I have any architects amongst my hearers, but I am quite sure that nobody else in this room knows what a cyma recta is; and I am sure that if most young men told their adored ones that they had cyma recta mouths it might lead to trouble.

    Thomas Hardy, The Novelist 1924

  • Next she flung herself on the couch in the cyma-recta curve which so became her, and with her arm over her brow looked towards the door.

    The Mayor of Casterbridge 1887

  • [Footnote: The egg-and-dart is found only on the ovolo, the leaf-and-dart only on the cyma reversa or the cyma recta (concave above and convex below) Both ornaments are in origin leaf-patterns one row of leaves showing their points behind another row.]

    A History of Greek Art Frank Bigelow Tarbell 1886

  • The sima or gutter-facing, whose profile is here a cyma recta (concave above and convex below), is enriched with sculptured floral ornament.

    A History of Greek Art Frank Bigelow Tarbell 1886

  • Next she flung herself on the couch in the cyma-recta curve which so became her, and with her arm over her brow looked towards the door.

    The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1884

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