Other forms: banisters
A banister is the rail your hand slides along as you climb the stairs. Grip the banister, slide down the banister, a polished banister.
Building rules require one on any flight above a certain height, because most falls at home happen on stairs. Strictly the banisters are the upright posts and the handrail is the top, but everyday speech uses the word for the whole thing.
1nounbanisterThe rail alongside a staircase.
“The children loved sliding down the banister.”
banister is a rail.
Also accepted in games: handrail, railing
An altered form of baluster, from Italian balaustro, named after the pomegranate flower its shape resembles.
Alteration of earlier barrester, ballester, corruptions of a doublet of baluster.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Around the House, Buildings & Architecture