lambrequin

English

A crocheted lambrequin (decorative drapery).

Lambrequins under overhangs and eaves of a building.

Alternative forms

• lambrekin

Etymology

Borrowed from French lambrequin.

Noun

lambrequin (plural lambrequins)

1. A scarf or other piece of material used as a covering for a helmet.
   • 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XVI, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 146:

     A dead man (he had, I think, been suffocated with a lambrequin, there being those who practice that art) lay at the corner.

2. (heraldry) A heraldic representation of such an item: mantling.

   

   Heraldic lambrequins.

3. (US) A short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing; a valance.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all.

4. (ceramics) A border pattern with draped effect.

Translations

A short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing

• Bulgarian: драперия (bg) f (draperija)
• Russian: ламбрекен (ru) m (lambreken)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɑ̃.bʁə.kɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

lambrequin m (plural lambrequins)

1. lambrequin (all senses)
2. (heraldry) mantling

Descendants

• → Catalan: llambrequí
• → English: lambrequin
• → Russian: ламбрекен (lambreken)
• → Spanish: llambrequín

Further reading

• “lambrequin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.