Spanning [verb]

"I think rickety is just the word," he agreed, spanning a wrist with a finger and thumb.

A spanning or opening of a frame, and designed to carry the wall above it.

There were various methods proposed for spanning the St. Lawrence.

“If there is width enough,” mused Carrados, spanning the upright critically.

Bridges were crossing the Mississippi and spanning the chasms in the Rocky Mountains.

It was equivalent to spanning three bad fords with one bridge.

Even then the project of spanning the Atlantic was in his mind.

Shew'd me that epic was of all the king, Round, vast, and spanning all like Saturn's ring?

For as Renwick approached, the men upon the other side succeeded in spanning the abyss, and one of them rushed over.

Hard by the spot there was a paper mill, spanning a pretty little river, the Coln, which kept the machinery in motion.