machicolation

[Low Lat. machicola mentum, from O. Fr. mas che coulis; Fr. mâchecoulis, mache coulis, mac hic out is, a word of doubtful origin; perhaps from O. Fr. masche, Fr. mâche match, combustible matter, and O. Fr. coulis flowing.J 1. Arch . & Eng .: An aperture between the corbels supporting a projecting parapet. They were much employed in castellated architecture, and were intended for the purpose of allowing mi iles, molten lead, hot pitch, ., to be hurled or poured down on a ailants approaching near the walls. 2. The act of hurling mi iles, or pouring molten lead, ., through the apertures described in 1. *ma-chi cot, 8. [Fr.] An obsolete term for one of the chori ministri minores of a cathedral, who, in singing, added pa ing notes between intervals of the plain-song; or, accord Machicolation. [Tower over South Gateway Bodiam Castle, Su ex, England.] at ing to others, added a part to the plain-song at an interval of a third or fourth, thus forming a sort of organum or diaphony. The music thus sung was called machi cot age.