A small arch thrown across the corner of a square room to support a superimposed mass, as where an octagonal spire or drum rests upon a square tower; -- called also sconce, and sconcheon.
Arch across an interior angle, e.g. of square tower as support for side of octagon. (Wood, Margaret. The English Medieval House, 415)
A device by which a round dome or drum is supported on a square or polygonal base. The squinch helps transition the weight of the drum or dome to the walls of the square or polygon.
An arch, a lintel, corbelling, or a system of such members, built across the interior corner of two walls, as at the top of a tower, to serve as a foundation for the diagonal or canted side of a superimposed octagonal spire or lantern.
an arch which spans the angle formed by two walls meeting (Illustration). Usually to carry a dome, a form which evolved into the pendentive.
a small arch built across the interior angle of two walls (usually to support a spire)
An arch or a series of corbelled arches, diagonally across an angle (e.g. the internal angles of a square tower, to support a polygonal or round dome, or spire).
An arch or system of concentrically wider and gradually projecting arches, placed diagonally at the internal angles of towers to fit a polygonal or round superstructure onto a square plan. (see also arch)
a small stone arch or series of arches used to form a zone of transition between a square or octagonal base and a circular dome.
An arch placed at the corners of a square base to act as the transition to a circular dome placed on the base.
A squinch in architecture is a piece of construction used for filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a proper base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome. It was the primitive solution of this problem, the perfected one being eventually provided by the pendentive. Squinches may be formed by masonry built out from the angle in corbelled courses, by filling the corner with a vise placed diagonally, or by building an arch or a number of corbelled arches diagonally across the corner.