Wiktionary

skyscraper

English

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Skyscrapers

Etymology

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Compound of sky +‎ scraper, first applied to tall steel-frame buildings in American cities such as New York City and Chicago in the 1880s.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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skyscraper (plural skyscrapers)

  2. (architecture) A very tall building with a large number of floors. [from 1880s]
    • 1910, William Henry Irwin, The House of Mystery‎[1]:
      As the curve of Sandy Hook blotted from sight the last, low glimpse of the skyscrapers which point Manhattan, Blake touched Annette's arm.
    • 1912, Elliott O'Donnell, The Sorcery Club‎[2]:
      The solitary attic—if one could thus designate a space of about three square feet—which comprised Hamar's lodging—had the advantage of being situated in the top storey of a skyscraper—at least a skyscraper for that part of the city.
    • 1917, Herman Gastrell Seely, A Son of the City: A Story of Boy Life‎[3]:
      Then he noticed, as a prosaic business man will notice suddenly, that a skyscraper which he has passed daily for months is out of line with its neighbor, that the seat behind the new little girl was unoccupied and that she stood alone in the aisle during exercises.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel Station: Wards Codex entry:
      The Wards are open-topped, with skyscrapers rising from the superstructure. Towers are sealed against vacuum, as the breathable atmosphere envelope is only maintained to a height of about seven meters. The atmosphere is contained by the centrifugal force of rotation and a "membrane" of dense, colorless sulphur hexafluoride gas, held in place by carefully managed mass effect fields.
    • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
      From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. […]   But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
  3. (nautical, archaic) A small sail atop a mast of a ship; a triangular skysail.
  4. (figuratively) Anything very tall or high.
    • 1920, Zane Grey, The Redheaded Outfield and other Baseball Stories‎[4]:
      It was no surprise to see Hanley bat a skyscraper out to left.

Antonyms

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Hyponyms

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architecture

Coordinate terms

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architecture

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Descendants

Translations

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Further reading

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