gar·goyle

(gär′goil′)

1. A roof spout usually in the form of a grotesque or fantastic creature projecting from a gutter to carry rainwater clear of the wall.

2. A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.

3. A person of bizarre or grotesque appearance.

[Middle English gargoile, from Old French gargole, gargouille, throat, waterspout.]

gar′goyled′ (-goild′) adj.

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.

gargoyle

(ˈɡɑːɡɔɪl)

1. (Architecture) a waterspout carved in the form of a grotesque face or creature and projecting from a roof gutter, esp of a Gothic church

2. (Architecture) any grotesque ornament or projection, esp on a building

3. a person with a grotesque appearance

[C15: from Old French gargouille gargoyle, throat; see gargle]

ˈgargoyled adj

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

gar•goyle

(ˈgɑr gɔɪl)

n.

1. a grotesquely carved figure of a human or animal.

2. a spout, terminating in a grotesque representation of a human or animal figure, projecting from the gutter of a building for throwing rainwater clear of the building.

[1250–1300; Middle English gargoile < Old French gargouille, gargoule literally, throat; see gargle]

gar′goyled, adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	gargoyle - a spout that terminates in a grotesquely carved figure of a person or animal spout - an opening that allows the passage of liquids or grain
	2.	gargoyle - an ornament consisting of a grotesquely carved figure of a person or animal decoration, ornament, ornamentation - something used to beautify

Translations

gargoyle

[ˈgɑːgɔɪl] N → gárgola 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

gargoyle

[ˈgɑː^rgɔɪl] n → gargouille f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

gargoyle

n → Wasserspeier m

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

gargoyle

[ˈgɑːgɔɪl] n → gargolla, gargouille f inv

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

My dear chap, better is it for a man that he marry a sympathetic gargoyle than a Venus with a streak of hardness in her.

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'In dze garten zis morning,' proceeded his visitor, grinning like a gargoyle, 'I did zee you giss Violed.

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Between each of these windows is a gargoyle presenting the fantastic jaws of an animal without a body, vomiting the rain- water upon large stones pierced with five holes.

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The face of the creature was like the wildest gargoyle that the imagination of a mad medieval builder could have conceived.

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But whenever he thought of it again, long afterward, when he understood the story in which it figured, it was always fixed in that one fantastic shape--as if those wild legs were a grotesque graven ornament of the bridge itself, in the manner of a gargoyle. At the moment he merely passed, staring, down the stream.

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When this had happened about five times, Hirst, who leant against a window-frame, like some singular gargoyle, perceived that Helen Ambrose and Rachel stood in the doorway.

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The top of that mountain is lost in the clouds, and when you reach it you will be in the awful Land of Naught, where the Gargoyles live."

Our greatest Champion, Overman-Anu, once climbed the spiral stairway and fought nine days with the Gargoyles before he could escape them and come back; but he could never be induced to describe the dreadful creatures, and soon afterward a bear caught him and ate him up."

"What the Gargoyles most dread is a noise," said the man's voice.

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Then, said the women of the neighborhood, the whole church took on something fantastic, supernatural, horrible; eyes and mouths were opened, here and there; one heard the dogs, the monsters, and the gargoyles of stone, which keep watch night and day, with outstretched neck and open jaws, around the monstrous cathedral, barking.

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He was from a cave halfway between the Invisible Valley and the Country of the Gargoyles, and his hair and whiskers were so long that he was obliged to plait them into many braids that hung to his feet, and every braid was tied with a bow of colored ribbon.

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He saw the whole city as one ugly energy, from the sanguinary sketch lying on Valentin's table up to where, above a mountain and forest of gargoyles, the great devil grins on Notre Dame.

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