Pl. culs-de-lampe. [F. = lamp-bottom: the shape of the ornament suggesting the bottom of an ancient lamp.]
1. Arch. An ornamental support of inverted conical form; a pendant of the same form.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Cul de lamp, a French term … applied in architecture to several decorations, both of masonry and joinery, used, in vaults and ceilings, to finish the bottom of works, and wreathed somewhat in manner of a testudo.
1833. J. Dallaway, Disc. Archit. Eng., &c. 94 (Stanford). The roof has several pendents (culs de lampe).
2. Printing. An ornament used to fill up a blank space in a page, as at the end of a chapter when the matter stops short of the bottom.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., i. An ornamented and illustrated edition, with heads, vignettes, and culs de lampe.
