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Glite Dictionary
chimney breast

chimney breast

7.9
The part of a wall that sticks into a room to hold a fireplace
  • noun
  • /ˈʧɪmni brɛst/
  • UK
translation icon : saliente de chimenea
  • He has sold his soul to the Devil, you know," she confided, lowering her ice and glancing around as though that gentleman might be lurking behind a chimney breast.

Examples

  • Tastes best at the end of a gloomy, rainy day with an open fire licking at the chimney breast and Ricky Gervais insulting people on the telly.

    Blog text (10)

  • The old house featured a stunning brick chimney breast that added character to the living room.

  • The family gathered around the fire, enjoying the warmth radiating from the chimney breast.

  • She decorated the chimney breast with holiday ornaments and a garland of lights.

Surface Forms

chimney breast singular
chimney breasts plural

Morphology

chimney + breast

The compound combines a familiar item 'chimney' with 'breast' used metaphorically to mean a projecting part of a wall; a learner who knows both words can often guess it refers to the part of the wall related to the chimney. However, the architectural use of 'breast' is somewhat specialized and metaphorical, so the exact notion (a wall projection that encloses the lower chimney) is not fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

Chimney breast comes from the simple picture of a wall pushing into a room to hold a fireplace. Here chimney is the fireplace part and breast was used for a front part that sticks out, so chimney breast means 'the part of a wall that sticks into a room to hold the chimney'.