drawbridge

UK/ˈdɹɔːbɹɪd͡ʒ/US/ˈdɹɔːbɹɪd͡ʒ/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,390 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: drawbridges

A drawbridge is a bridge that lifts to close a castle off. Raise the drawbridge, lower the drawbridge, cross the drawbridge.

It spans the moat and is drawn up against the gate, so the bridge becomes the door. Raise the drawbridge is now used figuratively for shutting yourself off from everybody. Modern lifting bridges over water work on the same idea.

Definitions of drawbridge

1noundrawbridgeA bridge that lifts to close a castle off.B2+
“The guards raised the drawbridge as the enemy army approached the castle.”

drawbridge is a bridge.

Where it comes from

Middle English drawebrigge, from draw plus bridge — a bridge that is drawn up.

Middle English
drawebrigge
English, today
drawbridge

Middle English drawebrigge; by surface analysis, draw + bridge.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Buildings & Architecture

Practise this word

drawbridge in the wild

A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat.
Drawbridge
The middle span is a 1930 vertical-lift railroad drawbridge that carries Union Pacific and BNSF freight trains, as well as Amtrak passenger trains.
Benicia–Martinez Bridge
Treasure Island Causeway is a series of three bridges (the outer ones fixed, the middle one a bascule drawbridge) crossing Boca Ciega Bay between Treasure Island and St.
Treasure Island Causeway
Three months later, construction of the new drawbridge began.
Treasure Island Causeway
The castle has a massive appearance and was once accessed through a drawbridge, now replaced by a stone one.
Rivalta di Torino

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary