the.com/cantilever
physics holding its breath while a beam dares gravity to call its bluff
means A beam or structure that's fixed and supported at only one end, projecting outward into space with nothing holding up the far side.
from An English compound from the 17th century, but its exact making is murky. The second part is clearly 'lever' (via Old French levier, from Latin levare, 'to raise'). The first part is the puzzle: 'cant' may relate to 'cant' meaning a slanting edge or corner, though some have linked it to a worker named or a bracket form. The honest answer is that lexicographers shrug at the front half — only the 'lever' is certain, the rest is a beam of guesswork projecting unsupported into the past.
- no support
- Anchored at one end, defiantly free at the other
- bridge giant
- Quebec Bridge spans 549 meters by cantilever alone
- diving boards
- Every springboard is a cantilever flinging you skyward
- falling water
- Wright's house leaps over a waterfall on hidden beams
- your teeth
- Cantilever dental bridges hang a tooth off one neighbor
fallingwater — frank lloyd wright's house in pennsylvania with a 30-foot cantilever suspended over a waterfall, completed 1939
forth rail bridge — scottish cantilever bridge spanning the firth of forth, opened 1890, one of the world's longest cantilevers
millau viaduct — french highway bridge with cantilever sections, tallest bridge in the world at 343 meters, opened 2004