See Also: Column Bet(casino)
column(dictionary)
column(encyclopedia)
column(medicine)
column(dictionary)
fifth column(dictionary)
agony column(dictionary)
Rolando's column(medicine)
lateral column(medicine)
posterior column(medicine)

column (iou)



column noun. LME.
[Partly from Old French columpne (mod. colonne, after Italian colonna), partly from its source Latin columna pillar.]
1. Architecture. A long vertical, often slightly tapering, cylinder usu. surmounted by an entablature and forming part of an arcade or colonnade, or standing alone as a monument. LME.
COUPLED columns. OSIRIDE column.
W. S. Maugham Long halls, the roof supported by sculptured columns. A. Wilson The towering column of the Duke of York.
b. fig. A support, a prop. E17.
2. A vertical division of text on a page; a vertical array of figures or other information in a table. LME.
G. K. Chesterton Adding up a column in a ledger.
b. A part of a newspaper, sometimes more or less than a column of print, devoted (esp. regularly) to a special subject or writer. M19.
advertisement column, agony column, gossip column, etc. funny column: see FUNNY adjective. personal column: see PERSONAL adjective. social column: see SOCIAL adjective. the columns of the contents of (a newspaper); (our columns, used by a newspaper itself).
R. Campbell Then through my weekly columns I may pour The sentiments that dowagers adore.
3. A structure or object likened to a column (sense 1), as part of an animal body, part of a machine, etc. LME.
pulsed column: see PULSED ppl adjective. rectifying column: see RECTIFY verb 2. spinal column: see SPINAL adjective. vertebral column: see VERTEBRAL adjective 2.
Tennyson The knotted column of his throat.
b. Botany. The structure formed by the union of the style and stamens, or of staminal filaments, esp. in the orchids. E19.
4. Military. A narrow-fronted deep formation of troops or armoured vehicles etc. in successive lines. LME.
column of ROUTE. dodge the column colloq. shirk a duty; avoid work. fifth column: see FIFTH adjective.
transf.: R. Lowell A mother skunk with her column of kittens.
b. Nautical. A body or division of ships. E19.
5. A vertical cylindrical mass of liquid or vapour. L17.
L. van der Post I spotted two more columns of smoke.
6. A party, a faction. Chiefly US. E20.
Comb.: column-inch the quantity of print occupying one inch length of column.
columniform adjective shaped like a column E19.