gantry

[gan-tree] /ˈgæn tri/
noun, plural gantries.
1.
a framework spanning a railroad track or tracks for displaying signals.
2.
any of various spanning frameworks, as a bridgelike portion of certain cranes.
3.
Rocketry. a frame consisting of scaffolds on various levels used to erect vertically launched rockets and spacecraft.
4.
a framelike stand for supporting a barrel or cask.
Also, gauntry.
Origin
1325-75; Middle English gauntre < dialectal Old French gantier wooden stand, frame, variant of chantier < Medieval Latin cantārius < Latin canthērius < Greek kanthḗlios packass
Examples from the web for gantry
  • In fact, the therapy system has many safeguards and the gantry movement was not a dangerous problem.
  • Older kids can challenge themselves as they use a replica gantry to load cargo from a container ship onto a truck.
  • These are actors playing real instruments but pretending to be puppets, with a puppeteer up on a gantry above pulling the strings.
  • gantry cranes then unload the containers onto trucks.
  • The strongback, the gantry holding the rocket in place, folds down and away.
  • The gantry was rolled back overnight, and the pad is now in launch configuration.
  • The roll isn't always exactly the same, but the launch pad and gantry are fixed in one spot.
  • Container gantry crane operators load and discharge hundreds of containers in a systematic fashion.
  • The steel top beam of the gantry crane is supported by two hydraulic gantry towers on either side of the transporter.
British Dictionary definitions for gantry

gantry

/ˈɡæntrɪ/
noun (pl) -tries
1.
a bridgelike framework used to support a travelling crane, signals over a railway track, etc
2.
Also called gantry scaffold. the framework tower used to attend to a large rocket on its launching pad
3.
a supporting framework for a barrel or cask
4.
  1. the area behind a bar where bottles, esp spirit bottles mounted in optics, are kept for use or display
  2. the range or quality of the spirits on view: this pub's got a good gantry
Word Origin
C16 (in the sense: wooden platform for barrels): from Old French chantier, from Medieval Latin cantārius, changed from Latin canthērius supporting frame, pack ass; related to Greek kanthēlios pack ass
Word Origin and History for gantry
n.

1570s, originally "four-footed stand for a barrel," probably from Old North French gantier (Old French chantier, 13c., "store-room, stock-room"), from Latin cantherius "rafter, frame," also "a gelding," from Greek kanthelios "pack ass," related to kanthelion "rafter," of unknown origin. The connecting notion in all this seems to be framework for carrying things. Meaning "frame for a crane, etc." is from 1810. Railway signal sense attested by 1889.