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A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, burning objects or hot liquids (such as boiling oil or molten lead) can be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. A machicolated battlement projects outwards from the supporting wall in order to facilitate this.
The word derives from the Old French word machicoler, of unknown origins.
A variant of machicolations set in the ceiling of a passage were also colloquially known as murder-holes.
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