canopy
oxford
views updated May 09 2018canopy. 1. Roof-like ornamented hood surmounting an altar,
doorway,
font,
niche,
pulpit (where it is called a
tester),
stall, statue,
tabernacle, throne, tomb, window-aperture, etc., supported on
brackets,
colonnettes, etc., or suspended.
2. Canopy of honour,
ceele,
ceilure,
celure,
cellure, or
seele, is a richly coloured, often gilded, and panelled ceiling above an altar,
chancel,
chantry-chapel,
mortuary-chapel, etc.
3. Town canopy is a structure resembling an arcaded
gabled opening, often with elaborate
pinnacles,
finials, etc., like a model building, set on top of a niche or protecting a statue: the motif was adapted in funerary architecture, often shown in three dimensions, but horizontal (90° from the usual vertical position as a protection from the weather), on
tomb-chests over the heads of
effigies, and was later shown in
incised slabs and funerary
brasses. A canopy over an altar is usually called
baldacchino or ciborium.
A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture JAMES STEVENS CURL
canopy
oxford
views updated Jun 08 2018can·o·py / ˈkanəpē/ •
n. (pl. -pies) an ornamental cloth covering hung or held up over something, esp. a throne or bed. ∎ fig. something hanging or perceived as hanging over a person or scene: the canopy of stars. ∎ Archit. a rooflike projection or shelter: they mounted the steps under the concrete canopy. ∎ the transparent plastic or glass cover of an aircraft's cockpit. ∎ the expanding, umbrellalike part of a parachute, made of silk or nylon. ∎ [in sing.] the uppermost trees or branches of the trees in a forest, forming a more or less continuous layer of foliage.•
v. (-pies, -pied) [tr.] [usu. as adj.] (canopied) cover or provide with a canopy: a canopied bed | the river was canopied by overhanging trees. ORIGIN: late Middle English: from medieval Latin canopeum ‘ceremonial canopy,’ alteration of Latin conopeum ‘mosquito net over a bed,’ from Greek kōnōpeion ‘couch with mosquito curtains,’ from kōnōps ‘mosquito.’
The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English
canopy
oxford
views updated May 17 2018canopy (ecol.) The part of a woodland or
forest community that is formed by the trees. In complex forests, e.g. in
tropical rain forest, the canopy is often arbitrarily subdivided into emergent, middle, and lower zones. The term may also be applied to the upper layer of shrub and scrub communities, or in any terrestrial plant community in which a distinctive habitat is formed in the upper, denser regions of the taller plants. Compare
GROUND LAYER.
A Dictionary of Plant Sciences MICHAEL ALLABY
canopy
oxford
views updated May 18 2018canopy The part of a woodland or
forest community that is formed by the trees. In complex forests, e.g. in
tropical rain forest, the canopy is often arbitrarily subdivided into emergent, middle, and lower zones. The term may also be applied to the upper layer of shrub and scrub communities, or any terrestrial plant community in which a distinctive habitat is formed in the upper, denser regions of the taller plants. Compare
ground layer.
A Dictionary of Ecology MICHAEL ALLABY
canopy
oxford
views updated May 18 2018canopy XIV. Late ME.
canope,
canape — medL.
canopeum, for L.
cōnōpēum net over a bed — Gr.
kōnōpeîon Egyptian bed with mosquito curtains, f.
kṓnōps gnat, mosquito.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD
Canopy
oxford
views updated Jun 27 2018Canopy (for Jewish marriage ceremony): see
HUPPAH.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions JOHN BOWKER
Canopy
gale
views updated Jun 08 2018Canopy
an overhanging shelter or shade; used figuratively.
Examples: canopy of clouds, 1855; of heaven, 1869; of plumage, 1843; of trees; of virtue, 1603.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms