different between fortify vs buttress

English

Etymology

From Old French fortifier, from Latin fortific?.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??t?fa?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??t?fa?/
• Hyphenation: for?ti?fy

Verb

fortify (third-person singular simple present fortifies, present participle fortifying, simple past and past participle fortified)

1. (military) To increase the defenses of; to strengthen and secure by military works; to render defensible against an attack by hostile forces. [from early 15th c.]
2. (figuratively) To impart strength or vigor to.
3. (wine) To add spirits to wine to increase the alcohol content. [from 1880]

4. (food) To increase the nutritional value of food by adding ingredients. [from 1939]
   • 1979, Kiplinger's Personal Finance (volume 33, number 7, July 1979, page 47)

     Compare the nutrition information label of a regular ready-to-eat fortified cereal with that of a presweetened brand and you'll note that, although the sweetened one's sugar content is higher, the fortification is virtually identical.

Synonyms

• (To strengthen military defenses): castellate, incastle, incastellate; see also strengthen and secure
• (To impart strength): See also Thesaurus:strengthen

Derived terms

• biofortify

Related terms

• fort
• fortification
• fortress

Translations

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