[f. VAULT v.1 and sb.1]
1. a. The construction of a vault or vaults; the operation of covering or roofing with a vault.
1512. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 608. Herry Semerk shall haue duryng the tyme of the said vawtyng the vse of certeyn stuffes and necessaryes.
1552. Huloet, Vaultyng or makyng a worke wyth vaultes or vault fascion, concameratio.
1596. Harington, Metam. Ajax (1814), 76. Then thus it is he alloweth the vaulting or arching over of the Jakes.
1647. Hexham, I. s.v., A vaulting or making of an arch roofe.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 101. The fourth for the Vaulting of Sellars or any other Offices.
1850. Parker, Gloss. Archit., 506. Domical … vaulting over a circular area was likewise practised by the Romans.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 465/2. Their introduction … caused an entire change in the system of vaulting.
b. The development of a vaulted space.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 150. When the abscess comes into relation with the costal walls, more or less vaulting, with widening and effacement of the intercostal spaces, will be manifest.
2. The work or structure forming a vault.
1513. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 613. The seid John Wastell shall make and sett vpp … the vawtyng of ij porches.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 91. A silver sconce that hung from the vaulting.
1790. Pennant, London (1793), 65. The vaulting of this was not finished till 1296.
1811. Milner, Eccles. Archit. Eng., Pref. p. xvi. The gorgeous vaulting of King’s College.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 401. This produces in the vaulting of St. James an effect something like a wooden roof.
1898. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, IX. iv. The vaulting (supported partly on low columns … and partly on the basement wall of the church) is therefore of unusual extent.
transf. and fig. Pollok, Course T., X. Beyond the azure vaulting of the sky.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., I. 1026. His truth had barred The vaulting of his life.
b. With a and pl.: A species, example or piece of such work.
1750. Wren, Parentalia, 290. The Romans used hemispherial Vaultings.
1797. S. Lysons, Rom. Antiq. Woodchester, 17. It is probable that part of the roof was formed by diagonal vaultings, resting on the four columns.
1823. Buckland, Reliq. Diluv., 5. The natural vaultings that compose this subterraneous wonder.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2694/1. Vaultings, or arched roofs, are supported by ribs or groins, often intersecting each other.
transf. 1836. Buckland, Geol. & Min., xv. § 4 (1837), I. 356. The shell … is fortified by a series of ribs and vaultings disposed in the form of arches and domes.
3. attrib., as vaulting field, pier, pillar, rib, -span, shaft, -surface.
1830. Whewell, Archit. Notes, 21. The vaulting pillars are half columns from the floor. Ibid., 44. The principal, or vaulting piers in the Romanesque style were often engaged columns. Ibid., 45. In sexpartite vaulting they supply vaulting shafts smaller and less important than the principal piers.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. viii. 92. The entire development of this cross system in connection with the vaulting ribs.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), II. 176. In either case … the error has to be thrown into the vaulting-surfaces.
1880. Archaeol. Cant., XIII. 20. The Repton crypt, with its narrow vaulting-spans.
1886. B. Brown, Schola to Cathedral, iv. 159. Eight triangular vaulting fields corresponding to the eight sides of the drum from which it rises.
