Word Direct Answers

What does "cushion" mean?

Cushion: Anything resembling a cushion in properties or use; as: (a) a pad on which gilders cut gold leaf; (b) a mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston; (c) the elastic edge of a billiard table.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A riotous kind of dance, formerly common at weddings; -- called also cushion dance. Halliwell. Cushion capital.(Arch.) A capital so sculptured as to appear like a cushion pressed down by the weight of its entablature. (b) A name given to a form of capital, much used in the Romanesque style, modeled like a bowl, the upper part of which is cut away on four sides, leaving vertical faces. -- Cushion star (Zoöl.) a pentagonal starfish belonging to Goniaster, Astrogonium, and other allied genera; -- so called from its form.
  2. 3.To seat or place on, or as on a cushion. Many who are cushioned on thrones would have remained in obscurity. Bolingbroke.
  3. 4.To furnish with cushions; as, to cushion a chaise.
  4. 5.To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion. Cushioned hammer, a dead-stroke hammer. See under Dead-stroke.

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