Arch. [? a. F. architrave (ch soft), or It. arco-, architrave, f. ARCHI- + trave:—L. trabem (nom. trabs) beam.]
1. The lowest division of the entablature, consisting of the main beam that rests immediately upon the abacus on the capital of a column; the epistyle.
1563. Shute, Archit., C i b. Vpon the Capitall shalbe layde or set Epistilium, named also Trabes, called in oure English tonge the Architraue.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 710. Doric pillars overlaid With Golden Architrave.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 339. Stone-Heng is made up of three circles … the stones of each circle joyned with Architraves.
1789. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 102. The inscription is seen both in the frieze and architrave.
1856. Bryant, Forest Hymn, 2. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave.
2. Collective name for the various parts (lintel, jambs, and their moldings) that surround a doorway or window. Also attrib.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 76. Architrave doore-cases.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXI. 46. Folding gates … With pomp of various architrave o’erlay’d.
1847. Barham, Ingol. Leg. (1877), 85. With a shell-pattern’d architrave over the door.
3. Ornamental molding round the exterior of an arch. Also attrib.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 152. The arches too are channeled with architrave mouldings.
