Flȳ'ing-būt'tress, n.

n. (Arch.) A contrivance for strengthening a part of a building which rises considerably above the rest, consisting of a curved brace or half arch between it and the opposite face of some lower part, as in a Gothic building between the wall of the nave and the tops of the side-aisle buttresses, over the roof of the side-aisles: — so named from its passing through the air.