quoin

1 expandable metal or wooden wedge used by printers to lock up a form within a chase [syn: coign, coigne]

2 the keystone of an arch [syn: coign, coigne]

3 (architecture) solid exterior angle of a building; especially one formed by a cornerstone [syn: corner]

English

Etymology

Variant of coin; compare coign.

Pronunciation

• /kɔɪn/
• koin, /kOIn/

• Homophones: coin

Noun

1. Any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding blocks.

Synonyms

• (corner block of a building): cornerstone

Generally, a quoin is a wedge, used to support or anchor other items. More specifically, quoin may refer to:

• Quoin (architecture), the corner stones that anchor the edge of the building wall

• In printing, quoins are wedges used by printers to hold the hand-set type in place in a printer's chase

• In naval warfare, a quoin was a wedge manipulated at the breech end of a cannon to raise or lower the barrel

Intertype, L, Linotype, Monotype, angle, apex, bend, bifurcation, bight, cant, chevron, coin, cold-type typesetting, composing, composing stick, composition, computerized typesetting, corner, cornerstone, crank, crook, crotchet, deflection, dogleg, dummy, first stone, footstone, fork, foundation stone, furcation, furniture, galley chase, headstone, hook, hot-metal typesetting, imposition, inflection, justification, keystone, knee, layout, line of type, nook, photocomposition, photosetting, phototypesetter, phototypesetting machine, point, setting, slug, swerve, typesetting, typesetting machine, veer, vertex, zag, zig, zigzag