different between vault vs flounce

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /v?lt/, /v??lt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /v?lt/, /v?lt/
• Rhymes: -??lt, -?lt
• Homophone: volt (in some accents)
• The l was originally suppressed in pronunciation.

Etymology 1

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

Noun

vault (plural vaults)

1. An arched masonry structure supporting and forming a ceiling, whether freestanding or forming part of a larger building.
   • 1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

     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.

   • 1636, George Sandys, A Paraphrase on Job

     the silent vaults of death

   • 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.

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

8. (often figuratively) 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.

Synonyms

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

Hyponyms

Translations

Verb

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.

Translations

Etymology 2

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.

Verb

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

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

Derived terms

• vaulter
• vaulting

Translations

Noun

vault (plural vaults)

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.

Translations

See also

• pole vault
• vaulting horse

Further reading

• vault on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

Probably of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian flunsa (“hurry”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Or, perhaps formed on the pattern of pounce, bounce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fla?ns/
• Rhymes: -a?ns

Verb

flounce (third-person singular simple present flounces, present participle flouncing, simple past and past participle flounced)

1. To move in an exaggerated, bouncy manner.
2. (archaic) To flounder; to make spastic motions.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of Contentment (sermon)

     To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us.

   • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses

     With his broad fins and forky tail he laves / The rising surge, and flounces in the waves.

3. To decorate with a flounce.
4. To depart in a haughty, dramatic way that draws attention to oneself.

Translations

Noun

flounce (plural flounces)

1. (sewing) A strip of decorative material, usually pleated, attached along one edge; a ruffle.^W

   • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.

2. The act of flouncing.

Derived terms

• flouncy

Translations

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.