caissonnoun [ C ]
/ˈkeɪ.sən//ˈkeɪ.sən/caisson noun [ C ] (STRUCTURE)
specialized engineering a structure that goes under water or under ground and keeps water out, used in building and repairing things such as bridges:
The tower rests on caissons reaching down 110 feet into bedrock.
More examples
- Thousands of people worked on the Brooklyn Bridge. Many bodies are buried underneath those caissons.
- The foundation work, which involves drilling 34 steel and concrete caissons, is expected to take a year.
- 190,000 cubic yards of concrete went into the bridge's anchorages, caissons, towers and highway approaches.
- The Jefferson Memorial was built in the late 1930s and early 1940s atop pilings and caissons sunk into an artificial mud flat that is about 100 feet deep.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Civil engineering in general
- civil engineering
- engineer
- greenfield
- landscape
- lineman
- linesman
- planner
- planning
- planning permission
- purpose-built
- quantity surveyor
- reclamation
- redevelop
- ribbon development
- structural engineer
- surveyor
- town planning
- urbanize
- zone
- zoning
caisson noun [ C ] (BOX)
specialized military in the past, a large box or a vehicle pulled by a horse, used for carrying ammunition (= bullets, etc.) needed for a battle
Examples
- A caisson is the horse-drawn vehicle that once carried ammunition in battle and carries coffins afterward.
- There were caissons loaded with cartridges, musket balls and flints.
- For officers of the rank of colonel or higher, a riderless horse follows the caisson to the gravesite.
- The dead carried from the battlefield on a caisson were covered with a flag.