aiguille
Americannoun
noun
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a rock mass or mountain peak shaped like a needle
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an instrument for boring holes in rocks or masonry
Etymology
Origin of aiguille
1810–20; < French: literally, needle < Vulgar Latin *acūcula, alteration of Late Latin acucula, equivalent to acu ( s ) needle + -cula -cule 1; cf. acicula
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The larger masses of the whole aiguille, and true contour of this horn, are carefully given in plate 30, Fig.
From Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) by Ruskin, John
This strange aiguille has been crowned with a beautiful Romanesque chapel for some nine centuries, and it is just possible that a Roman temple stood there at an earlier date.
From France by Home, Gordon Cochrane
I do not know if their rude resemblance to two figures, on opposite sides of a table or altar, has had anything to do with the name of the aiguille.
From Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) by Ruskin, John
On the 15th, about midday, we arrived upon the summit of the aiguille, and found that we had actually been within one hundred feet of it when we turned back upon the first attempt.
From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Whymper, Edward
It was exactly like the front of Notre Dame, with one slender aiguille, like a flagstaff, shooting up from the top of one of its battlemented towers.
From Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 6 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, part 2 by Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
