balcony
/ˈbalkəni
/noun (plural balconies)
1A platform enclosed by a wall or balustrade on the outside of a building, with access from an upper-floor window or door: the glass doors opened on to a balcony with a view of the park...
- He'd also like to open up the rear windows with ceiling-height doors leading to balconies.
- Here the horizontal walls, terraces and balconies merge with their site.
- Thick, white walls were made flamboyant by ornate balconies and luxurious story-length windows.
Synonyms
veranda, terrace, portico, loggia
2 (the balcony) The highest tier of seats in a theatre, above the dress or upper circle.A woman, seen from above, seated in the balcony of a theatre, in her turn looks down on the spectacle below....
- The audience again cheers, but a new scene soon opens on the balcony above.
- Russel led Matt to a balcony above the balcony that connected to the throne room.
2.1The upstairs seats in a cinema.The first 100 children to arrive got upstairs seats in the balcony, so I used to make sure I was there....
- Upstairs is the balcony and snack bar or ‘chuckwagon’ as it's known round these parts.
- In Zamboanga itself, a grenade hurled from a cinema balcony into the crowd below injured four people.
2.2North American The dress circle in a theatre.The first balcony felt much like the balcony at the Ohio Theater, though smaller, except I loved the narrow (less than 3 feet wide, I'm sure) staircases....
- I like to sit in the front of the first balcony.
Synonyms
gallery, upper circle
informal the gods
Derivatives
balconied
/ adjective ...- So you'll be wanting a balconied Medina Side Bedroom which clocks in at a price of £198DB (b&b) per night, with free airport transfers.
- Most persons of the St Lucian upper class lived in balconied houses situated around the Square, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- This will be quite a modern building with a balconied atrium inside.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Italian balcone, probably ultimately of Germanic origin.
Balcony is from Italian balcone, based on balco ‘a scaffold’ from a Germanic root meaning ‘beam’. The English word was pronounced with the stress on the second syllable until about 1825, reflecting the Italian source.