| / English Dictionary |
BULWARK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away
Synonyms:
breakwater; bulwark; groin; groyne; jetty; mole; seawall
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("bulwark" is a kind of...):
barrier (a structure or object that impedes free movement)
Derivation:
bulwark (defend with a bulwark)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A fencelike structure around a deck (usually plural)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("bulwark" is a kind of...):
barrier (a structure or object that impedes free movement)
Holonyms ("bulwark" is a part of...):
ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An embankment built around a space for defensive purposes
Example:
they blew the trumpet and the walls came tumbling down
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("bulwark" is a kind of...):
embankment (a long artificial mound of stone or earth; built to hold back water or to support a road or as protection)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bulwark"):
bailey (the outer defensive wall that surrounds the outer courtyard of a castle)
battlement; crenelation; crenellation (a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns)
earthwork (an earthen rampart)
fraise (sloping or horizontal rampart of pointed stakes)
merlon (a solid section between two crenels in a crenelated battlement)
Instance hyponyms:
Antonine Wall (a fortification 37 miles long across the narrowest part of southern Scotland (between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde); built in 140 to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain)
Chinese Wall; Great Wall; Great Wall of China (a fortification 1,500 miles long built across northern China in the 3rd century BC; it averages 6 meters in width)
Holonyms ("bulwark" is a part of...):
fortification; munition (defensive structure consisting of walls or mounds built around a stronghold to strengthen it)
Derivation:
bulwark (defend with a bulwark)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Defend with a bulwark
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Hypernyms (to "bulwark" is one way to...):
defend (be on the defensive; act against an attack)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
bulwark (a protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away)
bulwark (an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes)
Context examples:
Now and again too there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark and a heavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell; so much heavier weather was made of it by this great rigged ship than by my home-made, lop-sided coracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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