PILLAR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pillar

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/pˈɪlər/ Listen

noun

Pillar n.

The general and popular term for a firm, upright, insulated support for a superstructure; a pier, column, or post; also, a column or shaft not supporting a superstructure, as one erected for a monument or an ornament. "Jacob set a pillar upon her grave." "The place... vast and proud, Supported by a hundred pillars stood."

Figuratively, that which resembles such a pillar in appearance, character, or office; a supporter or mainstay; as, the Pillars of Hercules; a pillar of the state. "You are a well-deserving pillar." "By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire."

(R. C. Ch.) A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church. (Obs.)

(Man.) The center of the volta, ring, or manege ground, around which a horse turns.

From pillar to post, hither and thither; to and fro; from one place or predicament to another; backward and forward. (Colloq.)

Pillar saint. See Stylite.

Pillars of the fauces. See Fauces, 1.

adjective

Pillar adj. (Mach.) Having a support in the form of a pillar, instead of legs; as, a pillar drill.

See images of 'Pillar'

Etymology of 'Pillar'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pillar" Quotes from Famous Books

... wholly destroyed. In Edinburgh the house of a Catholic priest was wrecked in obedience to a brutal handbill which called upon its readers to "take it as a warning to meet at Leith Wynd, on Wednesday next, in the evening, to pull down that pillar of popery lately erected there." The "pillar of popery" was the dwelling occupied by the priest, which was duly wrecked in obedience to the bidding of the nameless "Protestant" who signed the manifesto. It is curious to note a postscriptum to the handbill, which ran thus: "Please ...

— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume III (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy

... seem fair," complained Doe. "He could have done anything with his life," and he added rather tritely: "Penny's story which might have been monumental is now only a sort of broken pillar ...

— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond

... showed itself again. Fourthly, because its movement was not continuous, but when the Magi had to continue their journey the star moved on; when they had to stop the star stood still; as happened to the pillar of a cloud in the desert. Fifthly, because it indicated the virginal Birth, not by remaining aloft, but by coming down below. For it is written (Matt. 2:9) that "the star which they had seen in the east went before them, until it came and ...

— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... they had been known to take the roofs off houses, and carry flocks of sheep into the air; "but these that you see now," said he, "are no great matter." We estimated the size of the largest at about four hundred feet in height, and thirty in diameter; and this very pillar, walking by chance against a house, most decidedly got the worst of it, and had its lower limbs ...

— Anahuac • Edward Burnett Tylor

... she folded a five-pound note, and placed both in an envelope, which she addressed to Lionel Tarrant, Esq., at his lodgings in Westminster. Having posted this at the first pillar-box she walked on. ...

— In the Year of Jubilee • George Gissing

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