A straight or arched structure across an interior angle of a square tower to carry a superstructure such as a dome.
- Bam provided a veritable encyclopaedia of such historic structural elements: varieties of sun-dried mud brick squinches and vaults, many with the inclined arched technique recently used by Hassan Fathy.
- First started in the tomb of Iltutmish, the weight of the dome is transferred to the square base by the same mechanism - the squinch.
- They experimented with devices for the reflection and refraction of light: mosaics were placed in carefully constructed squinches and pendentifs, in curved apses, in domes; even on flat surfaces, curved setting beds were employed.
Late 15th century: alteration of obsolete scunch, abbreviation of scuncheon.
Words that rhyme with squinchcinch, clinch, finch, flinch, inch, lynch, Minch, pinch, winch
verb[with object] chiefly North American
1Tense up the muscles of (one’s eyes or face): Gina squinched her face up
More example sentences
- She looked at him inquisitively, squinching her eyes, deciding against the kick.
- I refuse to try on something like that,’ she squinched her eyes closed and made a cross with her fingers and giggled.
- She squinched her eyes tight so she wouldn't cry.
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