[ad. F. substruction or L. substructio, -ōnem, n. of action f. substruĕre to SUBSTRUCT.]
1. Arch. The under-structure of a building or other work.
1624. Wotton, Elem. Archit., 23. We must first examine the Bed of Earth … vpon which we will Build; and then the vnderfillings or Substruction, as the Auncients did call it.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. xii. 259. It was contrived into rooms, and fortified with substructions therein, fit for the receipt of a Prince.
1717. Berkeley, Jrnl. Tour Italy, Wks. 1871, IV. 532. A great quadrangular portico…, whereof the substructions only now remain.
1775. R. Chandler, Trav. Asia M. (1825), I. 33. Higher up is the vaulted substruction or basement of a large temple.
1838. Arnold, Hist. Rome, v. I. 52. The massy substructions of the Capitoline temple. Ibid. (a. 1842), xliii. (1843), III. 91. The road therefore was restored, and supported with solid substructions below.
1866. Felton, Greece, Anc. & Mod., II. ii. 285. A part of this road is still to be seen … with the ruined masses of the immense substructions which supported it.
1898. G. A. Smith, Bk. Twelve Prophets, II. xxxvii. 530. Upon terraces and substructions of enormous breadth rose storied palaces, arsenals, barracks, libraries and temples.
attrib. c. 1676. Wren, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 534. The Ground plot of the Substruction Cloister.
2. fig. A basis, foundation.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. xiii. 405. The laws of Oleron … are received by all nations in Europe as the ground and substruction of all their marine constitutions. Ibid. (1766), II. iv. 51. A substruction and foundation of their new polity.
1822. T. Erskine, Ess. Faith (1825), 33. A scaffolding or substruction for the doctrine.
1887. [E. Johnson], Antiqua Mater, 232. The historic ‘substruction’ of a system, supported by astrological calculation.
† 3. (See quot.) Obs. rare–0.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Substruction, an underpinning or grounselling of a house.
1728. Chambers, Cycl.
Hence Substructional a. (in recent Dicts.).
