parge
/pɑː(ɹ)d͡ʒ/US/pɑɹd͡ʒ/
parge noun: a coat of cement mortar on the face of rough masonry, the earth side of foundation and basement walls.
Noun
parge (plural parges)
- A coat of cement mortar on the face of rough masonry, the earth side of foundation and basement walls.
- I watch as the mason at the Gilbert house picks up a glob of parge coat on his trowel. He smooths it on, moving from the bottom of the wall to the top. Next, he drapes a white fiberglass mesh from the top of the wall to the bottom and pushes it into the parge coat with his trowel.1990 May, Cheryl M. Fiorillo, “Lightweight block, heavyweight insulator”, in Popular Science, volume 236, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 107
- Parging is a single layer of mortar applied directly to the wall with a trowel so that it covers the entire surface. Parges generally are rough and cover the whole masonry surface, but at times they are only applied to the joints or recessed portions of the stonework. Parges might subsequently be...1991 July–August, Paul Briggs, “Mortars & finishes”, in The Old-House Journal, volume XIX, number 4, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Old House Journal Corporation, →ISSN, page 37
- Synonyms:
- parging
Verb
parge (third-person singular simple present parges, present participle parging, simple past and past participle parged)
- To apply a parge on to a surface.
- If your smoke chamber [of a fireplace] is very oddly shaped or virtually impossible to parge, you can solve this problem using expanded metal lath. […] Once you have parged the sides and back of the smoke chamber, set the lintel in a bed of mortar and brick up the breast (front).1992 November–December, Christopher Phillips, “Rebuilding fireplaces”, in The Old-House Journal, volume XX, number 6, Gloucester, Mass.: Old House Journal Corporation, →ISSN, page 33
- When more than one unit thick of brick or tile is used in the wall, the back of the face brick or tile may be covered with mortar. This parging will substantially increase the waterproofing of the wall. Basement walls usually are parged.1998, Henry S. Harrison, Houses: The Illustrated Guide to Construction, Design and Systems, 3rd edition, Chicago, Ill.: Dearborn Real Estate Education, →ISBN, page 200
Examples of parge in a sentence
- Parges generally are rough and cover the whole masonry surface, but at times they are only applied to the joints or recessed portions of the stonework.1991 July–August, Paul Briggs, “Mortars & finishes”, in The Old-House Journal, volume XIX, number 4, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Old House...
- A better method for dealing with efflorescence on masonry is to coat the offending surface with a parge coat of plaster.2007, John Banta, Extreme Weather Hits Home: Protecting Your Buildings from Climate Change, Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers...
Synonyms of parge
Forms of parge
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | parges |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | parges |
| present participle | parging |
| past participle | parged |
| past | parged |
Origin of parge
Probably from parget (verb) (perhaps influenced by sparge (verb)), from Old French porjeter, progeter, pourgeter (“to cast; to plaster a wall”) (compare Old French parjeter (“to cast (especially light) widely”); Middle French pourgetter (Lille and Tournai), Norman porjeter (“to plaster”); French pordjèter (“to add mortar between stones”) (Liège and Namur)), from Old French por- (“through”) + jeter (“to throw”), from Latin porrō (“further; onwards”) + Vulgar Latin, Late Latin iectāre, from Latin iactāre (“to cast, hurl, throw; to scatter, toss”) (compare Latin parjactare, purjettare, pargettare, progettare). The noun form of parge was derived from the verb.
Words formed from parge
Phrases with parge
Words that rhyme with parge
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about parge
- What does parge mean?
- Parge means a coat of cement mortar on the face of rough masonry, the earth side of foundation and basement walls.
- How do you use parge in a sentence?
- Parges generally are rough and cover the whole masonry surface, but at times they are only applied to the joints or recessed portions of the stonework.
- What part of speech is parge?
- Parge can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce parge?
- Parge is pronounced /pɑː(ɹ)d͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of parge?
- The plural of parge is parges.
Words near parge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: parge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-parge.wav.
Cite this entry: “parge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.