ceiling

Pluralceilings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The upper surface enclosing a room, opposite the floor and above the occupants.

   Water stains spread across the ceiling after the pipe burst upstairs.

   The cathedral's vaulted ceilings rose far above the worshippers below.

   Oppositefloor

   Note

   The word began as work done to a room. Middle English celing meant paneling, or a cover hung over a bed. It came from celen, to cover or panel walls, and behind that lay Old French celer, "to conceal." A ceiling was first a lining put up to hide what lay behind it. The verb that made it survives in the participle of ceil.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The maximum level beyond which something cannot or may not go.

   Lawmakers debated raising the debt ceiling before the deadline arrived.

   Her ambition seemed to have no ceiling; she always wanted more.

   Similarlimit, cap, maximum

   Oppositefloor

   Note

   The figurative limit usually travels with a noun that names what is capped. W. J. Alcock writes of the 60 m.p.h. speed ceiling of the London area in the Railway Magazine (1956), and economists speak of a price ceiling. N. Gregory Mankiw's Principles of Economics (2008) shows the economist's point: a ceiling set above where the market settles has no effect on price or quantity.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The interior overhead surface forming the upper boundary of a room.

   The architect specified a coffered ceiling for the main hall.

   Acoustic panels were mounted to the ceiling to reduce the echo.

   Oppositefloor

   Note

   To a builder the ceiling is the finished surface below the structure. It hides the joists, ductwork and wiring in the space above. That suits a word that goes back to Old French "to conceal." Architects name ceilings by their form and finish: coffered, vaulted, or lined with acoustic panels.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The maximum amount permitted in a financial transaction or arrangement.

   Congress voted to raise the borrowing ceiling for the coming year.

   Interest charges on the loan were capped by a legal ceiling.

   Similarcap, limit, maximum

   Oppositefloor

   Note

   Finance turns the overhead limit into a rule: a figure that a loan, a rate or a debt may not pass. Unlike the general upper limit, this ceiling is set by someone, such as a statute, a lender or a legislature. So it is raised, lowered or imposed rather than simply reached. It sits close to cap: the ceiling is the level, and capping is what holds charges beneath it.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The maximum altitude at which an aircraft can safely sustain level flight.

   The aircraft's service ceiling was listed at forty-three thousand feet.

   Cargo planes rarely approach their operational ceiling on short routes.

   Note

   Engineers treat this as a performance figure, not a solid wall. As the air thins, engine thrust and wing lift can no longer keep the climb going. The service ceiling, the figure usually quoted, is fixed where only a small minimum rate of climb remains. Keep it apart from the cloud ceiling, which describes the weather rather than the aircraft.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   The result of rounding a number up to an integer, leaving it unchanged if it is already an integer.

   The ceiling of 7.1 equals 8.

   Taking the ceiling of a negative number like −2.3 gives −2.

   Oppositefloor

   Note

   Mathematicians write it with half-brackets, ⌈x⌉, and think of it as rounding toward positive infinity. The direction is what trips people up with negative numbers. The ceiling of 4.5 is 5, but the ceiling of −4.5 is −4, not −5. A number that is already an integer is its own ceiling.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   The vertical distance from ground or sea level up to the base of an overcast cloud layer, reported as unlimited when the sky is clear.

   The control tower reported a ceiling of eight hundred feet in steady drizzle.

   With a clear sky overnight, the ceiling was logged as unlimited.

   Note

   A weather report's ceiling belongs to the sky, not to the airplane. It is the height of the lowest cloud layer thick enough to count as broken or overcast, so thin or patchy cloud does not set one. The word also works as a mass noun, as when there is still enough ceiling for the Blue Angels to fly their show under a cloudy sky.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   The inner planking that lines the interior of a ship's hull.

   Shipwrights fastened the ceiling to the frames with iron spikes.

   Water had seeped behind the ceiling and rotted the timbers.

   Similarlining

   Note

   Shipwrights kept the word's oldest meaning, a lining of boards: the paneling behind the room's ceiling. On a ship the ceiling is fastened to the inboard faces of the frames. It gives the hold a smooth inner skin and stiffens the hull along its length. It is not overhead at all, and it is separate from the outer planking that meets the water.

9. 9
   verb

   Present participle of ceil.

   The crew was ceiling the dining room with carved oak panels.

   Plasterers spent the whole afternoon ceiling the chapel.

   Note

   Here the word is a verb form, spelled like the noun but built on ceil, "to line a surface with plaster, stucco or thin boards." The verb is transitive, so it takes an object: you ceil a chapel or a dining room. Ceil can also mean to set a higher bound, which ties the verb back to the figurative noun.

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