Adjacent Words

drawbridge definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a bridge that can be raised to block passage or to allow boats or ships to pass beneath it [syn: drawbridge, lift bridge]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century a bridge made to be raised up, let down, or drawn aside so as to permit or hinder passage — see castle illustration

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a bridge, esp. over water, hinged at one end so that it may be raised to prevent passage or to allow ships etc. to pass.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Drawbridge Draw"bridge`, n. A bridge of which either the whole or a part is made to be raised up, let down, or drawn or turned aside, to admit or hinder communication at pleasure, as before the gate of a town or castle, or over a navigable river or canal. Note: The movable portion, or draw, is called, specifically, a bascule, balance, or lifting bridge, a turning, swivel, or swing bridge, or a rolling bridge, according as it turns on a hinge vertically, or on a pivot horizontally, or is pushed on rollers.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(drawbridges) A drawbridge is a bridge that can be pulled up, for example to prevent people from getting into a castle or to allow ships to pass underneath it. N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

Bifrost, abatis, advanced work, balistraria, bank, banquette, barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barricade, barrier, bartizan, bascule bridge, bastion, bateau bridge, battlement, breastwork, bridge, bulwark, cantilever bridge, casemate, catwalk, cheval-de-frise, circumvallation, contravallation, counterscarp, curtain, demibastion, dike, earthwork, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment, fence, fieldwork, floating bridge, flyover, footbridge, fortalice, fortification, gangboard, gangplank, gangway, glacis, lift bridge, loophole, lunette, machicolation, mantelet, merlon, mound, outwork, overbridge, overcrossing, overpass, palisade, parados, parapet, pontoon bridge, portcullis, postern gate, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, rope bridge, sally port, scarp, sconce, span, stepping-stone, stepstone, stockade, suspension bridge, swing bridge, tenaille, toll bridge, vallation, vallum, viaduct, work