embrasure

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the inward-splayed recess around a door or window opening in a thick wall

   She sat in the deep window embrasure and rested one arm on the sill.

2. 2
   noun

   an opening or indentation in a fortification through which a weapon can be fired

   The cannon projected through an embrasure in the stone parapet.

Borrowed from French embrasure, from embraser in an older architectural sense "to cut or widen an opening at a slant." The French verb was formed from em- + braser ("to bevel or slope"). The word names both the splayed recess around a window or door and a protected firing opening in a fortification.

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