Hypertext Webster Gateway: "tracery"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tracery \Tra"cer*y\, n.
A tracing of lines; a system of lines produced by, or as if
by, tracing, esp. when interweaving or branching out in
ornamental or graceful figures. ``Knit with curious
tracery.'' --Burns.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tracery \Tra"cer/y\, n.; pl. {Traceries} (Arch.)
Ornamental work with rambled lines. Especially:
(a) The decorative head of a Gothic window.
Note: Window tracery is of two sorts, plate tracery and bar
tracery. Plate tracery, common in Italy, consists of a
series of ornamental patterns cut through a flat plate
of stone. Bar tracery is a decorative pattern formed by
the curves and intersections of the molded bars of the
mullions. Window tracery is imitated in many decorative
objects, as panels of wood or metal either pierced or
in relief. See also Stump tracery under {Stump}, and
Fan tracery under {Fan}.
(b) A similar decoration in some styles of vaulting, the ribs
of the vault giving off the minor bars of which the
tracery is composed.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
tracery
n : decoration consisting of an open pattern of interlacing ribs
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