Other forms: bulwarks
A bulwark is a defence that holds back a threat. A bulwark against tyranny, the last bulwark, stand as a bulwark.
The figurative use is much the commoner and nearly always takes against. On a ship the bulwarks are the solid sides above the deck that stop people and water going over.
1nounbulwarkA defence that holds back a threat.
“The old sea wall is the town's only bulwark against winter storms.”
bulwark is a defence.
Middle Dutch bolwerk is bole, a tree trunk, plus werk, work; boulevard is the same word through French.
Proto-Indo-European
*werǵ-
Middle Low German
bolwerk
Middle Dutch
bolwerk
Middle English
bulwerk
English, today
bulwark
From Middle English bulwerk, from Middle Dutch bolwerk, bolwerc and Middle Low German bolwerk, equivalent to bole + work. Cognate with German Bollwerk, Danish bolværk, Swedish bålverk, Dutch bolwerk. a doublet of boulevard (from French boulevard, from Dutch); cognate with Portuguese - and Spanish - baluarte and Italian baluardo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA