▪ I. † emˈbrasure, n.1 Obs. rare.
[f. embrace v.2 + -ure.]
= embrace.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. iv. 39 Preuents Our lock't embrasures. |
▪ II. embrasure, n.2
(ɛmˈbreɪʒ(j)ʊə(r))
Also embrazure.
[a. F. embrasure (16th c.), f. embraser ‘to skue or chamfret off the jaumbes of a door or window’ (Cotgr.), synon. with braser (Cotgr.) and the mod.F. ébraser.]
1. A slanting or bevelling in the sides of an opening to a wall for a window or door, so that the inside profile of the window is larger than that of the outside.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Suppl., Embrasure, in architecture, an enlargement of the gap, or aperture of a door, or window, within-side the wall. 1832 in Webster. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) II. vii. vii. 329 They put me in a chair in the embrasure of a window. 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 181 The spreading or embrasure of the jambs increases the openings inwards. |
2. Mil. An opening widening from within made in an epaulement or parapet for the purpose of allowing a gun to be fired through it.
| 1702 Milit. Dict., Embrazures, the Gaps or Loopholes, left open in a Parapet for the Cannon to fire through. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 47 Setting himself close to the wall under an embrasure. 1813 Scott Rokeby v. xxxiv, The eye could count each embrazure. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1877) III. i. 124 Riding straight at one of the embrasures [he] leapt his grey Arab into the breastwork. |
b. A port-hole for the same purpose in a ship.
| 1759 Falconer 90-Gun Ship 43 Guns..From dread embrazures formidably peep. 1881 [see 3]. |
3. attrib.
| 1809 Naval Chron. XXII. 514 An embrasure battery of four guns. 1881 Daily News 29 Aug. 3/4, I..jumped down on the embrasure port. |
▪ III. embrasure, v. trans.
(ɛmˈbreɪʒ(j)ʊə(r))
To furnish with embrasures. Hence emˈbrasured ppl. a.
| 1805 Naval Chron. XIII. 500 The Fort..being completely embrazured. 1853 Blackw. Mag. LXXIV. 73 He would have rushed to Paris, embrasured the walls. 1877 H. E. H. King Disciples Ugo Bassi iv. (ed. 3) 160 The mud embankments, the embrasured walls. |