vault

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vɒlt/, /vɔːlt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɑlt/, /vɔlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːlt, -ɒlt
• Homophone: volt (in some accents)
• The l was originally suppressed in pronunciation.

From Middle English vaute, vowte, from Old French volte (modern voûte), from Vulgar Latin *volta < *volvita or *volŭta, a regularization of Latin volūta (compare modern volute (“spire”)), the past participle of volvere (“roll, turn”). Cognate with Spanish vuelta (“turn”). Doublet of volute.

vault (plural vaults)

1. An arched masonry structure supporting and forming a ceiling, whether freestanding or forming part of a larger building.

   The decoration of the vault of Sainte-Chapelle was much brighter before its 19th-century restoration.

   • 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751)​, T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753, OCLC 519198867:

     the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault

2. Any arched ceiling or roof.
3. (figuratively) Anything resembling such a downward-facing concave structure, particularly the sky and caves.

   The stalactites held tightly to the cave's vault.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth.
     As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme:
     Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts.
     To pull the triple headed dog from hell.

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii], page 308:

     Had I your tongues and eyes, Il’d vſe them so,
     That Heauens vault ſhould crack: ſhe’s gone for euer.

   • 1636, George Sandys, “A Paraphrase upon Job” in A Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems:

     The ſilent vaults of Death, vnknowne to Light;
     And Hell it ſelfe, lye naked to his ſight.

   • 1913, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt‎:

     No bird flew in the blue vault of heaven, no man or beast moved upon the vast countryside which lay before us.

   • 1985, Bible (NJB), Genesis, 1:6:

     God said, ‘Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.’

4. The space covered by an arched roof, particularly underground rooms and (Christianity, obsolete) church crypts.
5. Any cellar or underground storeroom.
   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, A Panegyrick on the Dean

     to banish rats that haunt our vault

6. Any burial chamber, particularly those underground.

   Family members had been buried in the vault for centuries.

7. The secure room or rooms in or below a bank used to store currency and other valuables; similar rooms in other settings.

   The bank kept their money safe in a large vault.

8. (often figurative) Any archive of past content.
9. (computing) An encrypted digital archive.
10. (obsolete) An underground or covered conduit for water or waste; a drain; a sewer.
11. (obsolete) An underground or covered reservoir for water or waste; a cistern; a cesspit.
12. (obsolete, euphemistic) A room employing a cesspit or sewer: an outhouse; a lavatory.

• (outhouse or lavatory): See Thesaurus:bathroom
• (gymnastic apparatus): vaulting table

vault (third-person singular simple present vaults, present participle vaulting, simple past and past participle vaulted)

1. (transitive) To build as, or cover with a vault.
   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 270129598:

     The shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley.

Borrowed from Middle French volter (“to turn or spin around; to frolic”), borrowed from Italian voltare, itself from a Vulgar Latin frequentative form of Latin volvere; later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.

vault (third-person singular simple present vaults, present participle vaulting, simple past and past participle vaulted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To jump or leap over.

   The fugitive vaulted over the fence to escape.

   The fugitive vaulted the fence to escape.

• vaulter
• vaulting

vault (plural vaults)

A multiple-exposure image of a gymnast performing a vault on a vaulting table

1. An act of vaulting, formerly (chiefly) by deer; a leap or jump.
2. (gymnastics) A piece of apparatus used for performing jumps.
3. (gymnastics) A gymnastic movement performed on this apparatus.
4. (equestrianism) Synonym of volte: a circular movement by the horse.
5. (gymnastics) An event or performance involving a vaulting horse.

• pole vault
• vaulting horse

• vault on Wikipedia.Wikipedia