2. An arched apartment; especially, a subterranean room, use for storing articles, for a prison, for interment, or the like; a cell; a cellar. "Charnel vaults." Milton. The silent vaults of death. Sandys. To banish rats that haunt our vault. Swift.
3. The canopy of heaven; the sky. That heaven's vault should crack. Shak.
4. Etym: [F. volte, It. volta, originally, a turn, and the same word as volta an arch. See the Etymology above.]
Defn: A leap or bound. Specifically: — (a) (Man.) The bound or leap of a horse; a curvet. (b) A leap by aid of the hands, or of a pole, springboard, or the like.
Note: The l in this word was formerly often suppressed in pronunciation. Barrel, Cradle, Cylindrical, or Wagon, vault (Arch.), a kind of vault having two parallel abutments, and the same section or profile at all points. It may be rampant, as over a staircase (see Rampant vault, under Rampant), or curved in plan, as around the apse of a church. — Coved vault. (Arch.) See under 1st Cove, v. t. — Groined vault (Arch.), a vault having groins, that is, one in which different cylindrical surfaces intersect one another, as distinguished from a barrel, or wagon, vault. — Rampant vault. (Arch.) See under Rampant. — Ribbed vault (Arch.), a vault differing from others in having solid ribs which bear the weight of the vaulted surface. True Gothic vaults are of this character. — Vault light, a partly glazed plate inserted in a pavement or ceiling to admit light to a vault below.
VAULT
Vault, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Vaulted; p. pr. & vb. n. Vaulting.] Etym:
[OE. vouten, OF. volter, vouter, F. voûter. See Vault an arch.]
1. To form with a vault, or to cover with a vault; to give the shape of an arch to; to arch; as, vault a roof; to vault a passage to a court. The shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley. Sir W. Scott.
2. Etym: [See Vault, v. i.]
Defn: To leap over; esp., to leap over by aid of the hands or a pole;
as, to vault a fence.
I will vault credit, and affect high pleasures. Webster (1623).
VAULT
Vault, v. i. Etym: [Cf. OF. volter, F. voltiger, It. volt turn. See
Vault, n., 4.]