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Antonyms for gables

Grammar : Noun
Spell : gey-buh l
Phonetic Transcription : ˈgeɪ bəl

Definition of gables

Origin :
  • mid-14c., from Old French gable "facade, front, gable," from Old Norse gafl "gable, gable-end" (in north of England, the word is probably directly from Norse), probably from Proto-Germanic *gablaz "top of a pitched roof" (cf. Middle Dutch ghevel, Dutch gevel, Old High German gibil, German Geibel, Gothic gibla "gable"), from PIE *ghebhel.
  • Cognates seem to be words meaning both "fork" (cf. Old English gafol, geafel, Old Saxon gafala, Dutch gaffel, Old High German gabala "pitchfork," German Gabel "fork;" Old Irish gabul "forked twig") and "head" (cf. Old High German gibilla, Old Saxon gibillia "skull").
  • Possibly the primitive meaning of the words may have been 'top', 'vertex'; this may have given rise to the sense of 'gable', and this latter to the sense of 'fork', a gable being originally formed by two pieces of timber crossed at the top supporting the end of the roof-tree." [OED]
  • Related: Gabled; gables.
  • As in roof : noun building covering
Example sentences :
  • Circular windows at this period came into vogue in the gables of churches.
  • Extract from : « English Villages » by P. H. Ditchfield
  • The edges of the gables rose, not in a slope, but in a succession of notches, like stairs.
  • Extract from : « Wilfrid Cumbermede » by George MacDonald
  • There were two pediments, or gables, of flat pitch, one at each end.
  • Extract from : « Architecture » by Thomas Roger Smith
  • It was a foreign air which howled about the gables and chimneys.
  • Extract from : « VC -- A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea » by David Christie Murray
  • The stone ran up to the eaves; but the two gables were of timber.
  • Extract from : « A Little Girl of Long Ago » by Amanda Millie Douglas
  • There were two rooms and a storage closet upstairs in the gables.
  • Extract from : « A Little Girl in Old Boston » by Amanda Millie Douglas
  • The yellow-washed one, with the gables and tiled roofs—there, back on the slope.
  • Extract from : « The History of Sir Richard Calmady » by Lucas Malet
  • Over the hustings he introduced a glimpse of the old Ipswich gables.
  • Extract from : « Pickwickian Manners and Customs » by Percy Fitzgerald
  • But its gables and chimneys are not the only happy picture in Cheam.
  • Extract from : « Highways and Byways in Surrey » by Eric Parker
  • The castles here, with the gingerbread work on the gables, are the guildhalls.
  • Extract from : « A Word Only A Word, Complete » by Georg Ebers

Synonyms for gables

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019