a kind of pillar; a cylindrical or polygonal support for a roof, ceiling, statue, etc., somewhat ornamented, and usually composed of base, shaft, and capital. see order.-anything resembling, in form or position, a column in architecture; an upright body or mass; a shaft or obelisk; as, a column of air, of water, of mercury, etc.; the column vendome; the spinal column.-a body of troops formed in ranks, one behind the other; -- contradistinguished from line. compare ploy, and deploy.-a small army.-a number of ships so arranged as to follow one another in single or double file or in squadrons; -- in distinction from "line", where they are side by side.-a perpendicular set of lines, not extending across the page, and separated from other matter by a rule or blank space; as, a column in a newspaper.-a perpendicular line of figures.-the body formed by the union of the stamens in the mallow family, or of the stamens and pistil in the orchids.