Other forms: portcullises
A portcullis is a heavy grating dropped to block a gateway. Lower the portcullis, behind the portcullis, the portcullis fell.
It ran in grooves in the stone and was dropped in seconds, which is why gatehouses often had two with a killing space between. It is the badge of the British Parliament and appears on the coins.
1nounportcullisA heavy grating dropped to block a gateway.
“The guards lowered the portcullis just before the enemy reached the castle gate.”
portcullis is a gate.
Old French porte coleice means sliding door, from porte, a door, plus a word meaning sliding.
Latin
colo
Old French
porte colëice
Middle English
portcolyse
English, today
portcullis
Built from
From Middle English portcolyse, from Old French porte colëice, from porte (“door”) + feminine of colëiz (“sliding”), ultimately from Latin colo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA