girandole

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n girandole an ornate candle holder; often with a mirror
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • girandole A flower stand, fountain, or the like, of branching form.
    • girandole (Pyrotechny) A kind of revolving firework.
    • girandole (Fort) A series of chambers in defensive mines.
    • girandole An ornate ornamental branched candlestick, often with a mirror at the back.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n girandole A branched lightholder, whether for candles or lamps, whether standing on a foot (see candelabrum) serving as a bracket projecting from the wall. The former is the more common signification in English use.
    • n girandole A kind of revolving firework; a pyrotechnic revolving sun; also, any revolving jet of similar form or character: as, a girandole of water.
    • n girandole A piece of jewelry of pendent form, often consisting of a central larger pendant surrounded by smaller ones.
    • n girandole In fortification, a connection of several mine-chambers for the defense of the place of arms of the covered way.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Girandole jir′an-dōl a branched chandelier, generally projecting from a wall, and used as a stand for candles or lamps, or for flowers: a rotating firework.
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
F. See Gyrate
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Fr.,—It. girandola—girare—L. gyrāre, to turn round—gyrus—Gr. gyros, a circle.

Usage

In literature:

Among other things, he had made mademoiselle a present of a pair of girandoles, containing diamonds of great value.
"The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete" by Constant
On the mantel stood the same girandoles with glittering crystals.
"54-40 or Fight" by Emerson Hough
The uproar continued; the benches were torn up, and the lustres and girandoles broken.
"A Book of the Play" by Dutton Cook
The rooms were lit by old-fashioned chandeliers and girandoles.
"Garman and Worse" by Alexander Lange Kielland
Trying to croon to herself as she passed, and stopping only to hang one of the scarlet girandoles in Vivia's braids, she went in.
"The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 75, January, 1864" by Various
It prevents the sight from being divided, and distracted by girandoles.
"The Stranger in France" by John Carr
Calmly Anna continues to sleep, the lights in the girandoles shedding a mysterious paleness over the scene.
"An Outcast" by F. Colburn Adams
Here and there girandoles were lighted for concerts, gas-jets flared among the foliage.
"The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2)" by Alphonse Daudet
Dodo ran up a pair of girandoles that stood on the narrow mantel-shelf in the front room, and finally got them for three dollars.
"Polly's Business Venture" by Lillian Elizabeth Roy
The tables were illuminated by five hundred girandoles.
"Louis XIV., Makers of History Series" by John S. C. Abbott
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In poetry:

In girandoles of gladioles
The day had kindled flame;
And Heaven a door of gold and pearl
Unclosed when Morning,--like a girl,
A red rose twisted in a curl,--
Down sapphire stairways came.
"Love And A Day" by Madison Julius Cawein

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