Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A framed opening, as in a wall, door, or window, fitted with fixed or movable horizontal slats for admitting air or light and often for shedding rain.
  • noun One of the slats used in such an opening.
  • noun One of the narrow openings formed by such slats.
  • noun A slatted, ventilating opening, as on the hood of a motor vehicle.
  • noun A lantern-shaped cupola on the roof of a medieval building for admitting air and providing for the escape of smoke.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A form of lantern or turret rising from the roof of a hall or other apartment in medieval domestic edifices, at first open at the sides.
  • noun A chimney-flue.
  • noun In architecture, a long window-like opening closed with broad slats sloping downward and outward. See abat-vent.
  • noun The aperture in a dove-cote at which the bird enters; also, the dove-cote itself.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun To supply with louvers.
  • noun (Arch.) A small lantern. See lantern, 2 (a).
  • noun Same as louver boards, below.
  • noun A set of slats resembling louver boards, arranged in a vertical row and attached at each slat end to a frame inserted in or part of a door or window; the slats may be made of wood, plastic, or metal, and the angle of inclination of the slats may be adjustable simultaneously, to allow more or less light or air into the enclosure.
  • noun the sloping boards set to shed rainwater outward in openings which are to be left otherwise unfilled; as belfry windows, the openings of a louver, etc.
  • noun slatted work.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A slatted opening in a wall, door or window.
  • noun Any of a series of narrow openings framed at their longer edges with slanting, overlapping fins or slats, adjustable for admitting light and air while shutting out rain.
  • noun A fin or slat framing such an opening.
  • noun A ventilating turret or lantern, as on the roof of a medieval building.
  • noun Any of a system of slits, as in the hood of an automobile, for ventilation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of a set of parallel slats in a door or window to admit air and reject rain

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English lover, skylight, chimney, from Old French, from Middle Dutch love, gallery, from Middle High German lauble.]

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Examples

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  • In castle architecture, an opening in the roof of the hall or turret to let smoke escape from a central hearth.

    August 25, 2008