different between buttress vs undergird

English

Alternative forms

• buttrice

Etymology

From Old French ars bouterez (noun, literally “supporting arcs”), from bouterez (adj), oblique plural of bouteret (rare in the singular), from Frankish *botan, from Proto-Germanic *bautan? (“to push”). Ultimately cognate with beat.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b?t??s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b?t??s/

Noun

buttress (plural buttresses)

1. (architecture) A brick or stone structure built against another structure to support it.

   Synonyms: counterfort, brace

   Hyponym: flying buttress

   Coordinate term: pilaster

2. (by extension) Anything that serves to support something; a prop.
3. (botany) A buttress-root.
4. (climbing) A feature jutting prominently out from a mountain or rock.

   Synonyms: crag, bluff

   Crowell Buttresses, Dismal Buttress
5. (figuratively) Anything that supports or strengthens.

Derived terms

• flying buttress

Translations

Verb

buttress (third-person singular simple present buttresses, present participle buttressing, simple past and past participle buttressed)

1. To support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.
2. (figuratively, by extension) To support something or someone by supplying evidence.

   Synonyms: corroborate, substantiate

Translations

Further reading

• buttress on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• betrusts

English

Etymology

From under- +? gird.

Verb

undergird (third-person singular simple present undergirds, present participle undergirding, simple past and past participle undergirded or undergirt)

1. To strengthen, secure, or reinforce by passing a rope, cable, or chain around the underside of an object.
2. (figuratively) To give fundamental support; provide with a sound or secure basis; provide supportive evidence for.
3. To lend moral support to.
4. To secure below or underneath.

Synonyms

• shore up
• fortify
• succour

Antonyms

• undermine

Translations