transom(e)

views updated

transom(e).
1. Cross-bar or beam.

2. Horizontal element framed across a window, generally used during the Perpendicular period, and commonly found in the grid-tracery of Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, dividing the window-aperture into lights framed by bars forming the mullions and transoms.

3. Horizontal piece in a doorway forming part of the frame, above which is a fanlight.