The act or process of placing something at or adjusting it to the center; in architecture, temporary frameworks used to support arches while under construction.
From centre (British spelling of center) plus -ing suffix. In architecture, it refers specifically to the wooden frameworks that support curved structures until the mortar hardens.
Medieval builders used wooden centring for stone arches that had to support immense weight, and if the centring failed before the arch hardened, the entire structure could collapse—these failures were the construction disasters of their era.
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