Meaning of Finial | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Especially in Gothic architecture: an ornament, often in the form of a bunch or knot of foliage, on the peak of the gable of a roof, a pediment, a pinnacle, etc.
2. Any decorative fitting on the corner, end, or top of an object such as a canopy, a fencepost, a flagpole, a curtain rod, or the newel post of a staircase.
   broadly
3. The completion or end of something.
   also, attributive, figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“His [Butades'] invention it vvas to ſet up Gargils or Antiques at the top of a Gavill end⟳, as a finiall to the creſt tiles, vvhich in the beginning he called Protypa.”

“From this fair Palace then he takes his Front, / From that his Finials; […] / And ſo, ſelecting euery vvhere the beſt, / Doth thirty Models in one Houſe digeſt.”

“[O]f that money vvhich aroſe of their amercements, vvere certain gilded ſhields made, vvhich vvere ſet up on the finial or lantern of Jupiters Temple.”

“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have⟳ its ragged edges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less finished than an architectural finial.”

“The steep slate roofs were topped with bronze finials so tall and fanciful they looked like⟳ drops of liquid sliding down a thread.”

“The finial is also of timber (probably oak) and is of the rather elaborate type⟳, originally favoured by the London & South Western Railway for its timber masts.”

“It was a narrow, gravelled island we had to lie⟳ on, guarded by glazed brick chimneys and, running along the sides, a prickly little gothic fence of iron⟳ finials and terracotta quatrefoils.”

“Mark⟳ Twain called the cherimoya "deliciousness itself," though others have⟳ described this heart-shaped, fist-sized fruit with pale-green leathery skin as "reptilian," like⟳ a "fossil artichoke" or "the finial for a giant four-poster bed."”

“He says there's a very particular etiquette to having your flag at half-mast: you're supposed to first run⟳ it all the way up to the finial at the top and then bring⟳ it halfway down.”

“For several years, the finial was missing, and its replica replacement will save⟳ the wooden post⟳ from rotting.”

“But, as the Phœnix on my Front doth gliſter, / Thou ſhalt the Finials of my Frame illuſtre.”

“[T]hey have⟳ invented idols, a manifest advance toward that polytheism and pantheism which lead⟳ through a triad and duad of deities to monotheism, the finial of the spiritual edifice.”

“[…] Lancelot Carnaby stopped from his rash venture into the water, and drew himself back into an ivied bush, which served as the finial of the little garden-hedge.”

CEFR level