The Devil's Dictionary: Gargoyle

Updated May 14, 2020 | Infoplease Staff
by Ambrose Bierce
GALLOWS
GARTHER

GARGOYLE

-n.

A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of the new incumbents.

.com/t/lit/devils-dictionary/G/2.html
Sources +