oriel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a projecting bay window corbeled or cantilevered out from a wall
    oriel window.

WordNet

O"ri*el noun
Etymology
OF. oriol gallery, corridor, LL. oriolum portico, hall, prob. fr. L. aureolus gilded, applied to an apartment decorated with gilding. See Oriole.
Definitions
  1. A gallery for minstrels. Obs. W. Hamper.
  2. A small apartment next a hall, where certain persons were accustomed to dine; a sort of recess. Obs. Cowell.
  3. (Arch.) A bay window. See Bay window.
    The beams that thro' the oriel shine Make prisms in every carven glass. Tennyson.
    ✍ There is no generally admitted difference between a bay window and an oriel. In the United States the latter name is often applied to bay windows which are small, and either polygonal or round; also, to such as are corbeled out from the wall instead of resting on the ground.

Webster 1913