caisson
IPA: kˈeɪsʌn
noun
- (engineering) An enclosure from which water can be expelled, in order to give access to underwater areas for engineering works etc.
- The gate across the entrance to a dry dock.
- (nautical) A floating tank that can be submerged, attached to an underwater object and then pumped out to lift the object by buoyancy; a camel.
- (military) A two-wheeled, horse-drawn military vehicle used to carry ammunition (and a coffin at funerals).
- (military) A large box to hold ammunition.
- (military) A chest filled with explosive materials, used like a mine.
- (architecture) A coffer.
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Examples of "caisson" in Sentences
- It's called a caisson, which is a huge, watertight wooden box half the size of a city block.
- He's suffering from what used to be called caisson disease -- and hell never recover from it.
- The cost will have been, when completed, about $700,000, and it is now waiting only for the entrance caisson, which is being made at the Dominion Bridge
- D.C. Respecting his wishes, Kopp's family requested a burial with full military honors, including a caisson, which is a horse-drawn carriage, to carry his casket.
- Mounted on top of the caisson was a 5-ton Wilson crane, which would reach each shaft and also the muck cars standing on tracks on the ground level beside the caissons.
- Sometimes when this happened a man might crawl inside, beyond the limits of the caisson, that is, to dramatize the uncanny nature of such a space, not to mention his own nerve.
- Exposure to such pressures is apt to be followed by disagreeable and even dangerous physiological effects, which are commonly referred to as caisson disease or compressed air illness.
- The sand, some 14 feet in depth, which originally surrounded the building, has been washed away, allowing the sea free access to the foundation caisson, which is down 14 feet into the solid madrepore.
- As more timber courses were added on top and the over-all height of the caisson was increased by a full ten feet, its center of gravity was raised considerably, causing a condition of “unstable equilibrium”—that is, the caisson would no longer rise uniformly with the rise of the tide.
- The term caisson is sometimes applied to flat air-tight constructions used for raising vessels out of water for cleaning or repairs, by being sunk under them and then floated; but these floating caissons are more commonly known as pontoons, or, when air-chambers are added at the sides, as floating dry-docks.
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