or **SOFFIT**, in Architecture, any timber ceiling formed of cross beams of flying corniches, the square compartments or panels of which are enriched with sculpture, painting, or gilding; such are those in the palaces of Italy, and in the apartments of Luxembourg at Paris.

or **Soffit**, is also used for the underside or face of an architrave; and more particularly for that of the corona or lamier, which the ancients called lacunar, the French plafond, and we usually the *drip*. It is enriched with compartments of rooves; and in the Doric order has 18 drops, disposed in three ranks, six in each, placed to the right of the guttae, at the bottom of the triglyphs.