bal·us·trade

(băl′ə-strād′)

A rail and the row of balusters or posts that support it, as along the front of a gallery.

[French, from Italian balaustrata, from balaustro, baluster; see baluster.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

balustrade

(ˈbæləˌstreɪd)

(Architecture) an ornamental rail or coping with its supporting set of balusters

[C17: from French, from balustre baluster]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bal•us•trade

(ˈbæl əˌstreɪd, ˌbæl əˈstreɪd)

n.

a railing with its supporting balusters.

[1635–45; < French; see baluster]

bal′us•trad`ed, adj.

Balustrade

a row or assemblage of balusters or turned pillars—Johnson, 1755.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

balustrade - a railing at the side of a staircase or balcony to prevent people from falling

balusters, banister, handrail, bannister

balcony - a platform projecting from the wall of a building and surrounded by a balustrade or railing or parapet

baluster - one of a number of closely spaced supports for a railing

barrier - a structure or object that impedes free movement

rail, railing - a barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports

Translations

rampe

balaustra balaustrata balaustro

balustrade

[ˌbæləsˈtreɪd] N → balaustrada f, barandilla f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

balustrade

[ˌbæləˈstreɪd] n → balustrade f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

balustrade

n → Balustrade f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

balustrade

[ˌbæləsˈtreɪd] n → balaustrata

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Here the Emperor sent his minister for Li Po, and here the great lyrist set her mortal beauty to glow from the scented, flower-haunted balustrade immortally through the twilights yet to come.

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The galleries were full of fashionably dressed ladies, leaning over the balustrade and trying not to lose a single word of what was being said below.

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A flight of red freestone steps, fenced in by a balustrade of curiously wrought iron, ascends from the court-yard to the spacious porch, over which is a balcony, with an iron balustrade of similar pattern and workmanship to that beneath.

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We accordingly went up a wonderful old staircase; with a balustrade so broad that we might have gone up that, almost as easily; and into a shady old drawing-room, lighted by some three or four of the quaint windows I had looked up at from the street: which had old oak seats in them, that seemed to have come of the same trees as the shining oak floor, and the great beams in the ceiling.

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Pickwick, edging a little from the balustrade, as the possibility of the dismal man's tipping him over, by way of experiment, occurred to him rather forcibly.

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With these words the young man went out and descended the stairs with sufficient calmness to pass unobserved; then upon the lowest landing place he passed Tony, leaning over the balustrade, waiting only for a call from his master to mount to his room.

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They stood for a moment at the balustrade and looked at Trafalgar Square.

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Vaux-le-Vicomte, when its magnificent gates, supported by caryatides, have been passed through, has the principal front of the main building opening upon a vast, so-called, court of honor, inclosed by deep ditches, bordered by a magnificent stone balustrade. Nothing could be more noble in appearance than the central forecourt raised upon the flight of steps, like a king upon his throne, having around it four pavilions at the angles, the immense Ionic columns of which rose majestically to the whole height of the building.

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Roses covered the walls of the house, draped the cornices, climbed the pillars, and ran riot over the balustrade of the wide terrace, whence one looked down on the sunny Mediterranean, and the white-walled city on its shore.

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"Ah!" Rodney cried, striking his hand once more upon the balustrade, "why can't one say how beautiful it all is?

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They saw a flight of red freestone steps ascending to a portal, above which was a balcony and balustrade. Misery and desolation give men the right of free passage everywhere.

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Often at night a hideous form was seen wandering along the frail balustrade of carved lacework, which crowns the towers and borders the circumference of the apse; again it was the hunchback of Notre-Dame.

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