DRAWBRIDGE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does drawbridge mean? 

• DRAWBRIDGE (noun)
  The noun DRAWBRIDGE has 1 sense:

1. a bridge that can be raised to block passage or to allow boats or ships to pass beneath it

  Familiarity information: DRAWBRIDGE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DRAWBRIDGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A bridge that can be raised to block passage or to allow boats or ships to pass beneath it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

drawbridge; lift bridge

Hypernyms ("drawbridge" is a kind of...):

bridge; span (a structure that allows people or vehicles to cross an obstacle such as a river or canal or railway etc.)

 Context examples 

A drawbridge had to be found which could be dropped across the abyss.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“You may find the scath yourself, my lusty friend, if you raise your great cudgel to me. I had as lief have the castle drawbridge drop upon my pate.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They passed the drawbridge, and entered the town; and the light was only beginning to fail as, guided by William's powerful voice, they were rattled into a narrow street, leading from the High Street, and drawn up before the door of a small house now inhabited by Mr. Price.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The Company had marched to the turn of the road ere Sir Nigel Loring rode out from the gateway, mounted on Pommers, his great black war-horse, whose ponderous footfall on the wooden drawbridge echoed loudly from the gloomy arch which spanned it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Let us on, then, said Ford, and the whole party, setting their spurs to their horses, soon found themselves at the Castle of Villefranche, where the drawbridge had already been lowered and the portcullis raised in response to the summons of Du Guesclin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But we must on, if we are to be there before the drawbridge rises at the vespers bugle; for it is likely that Sir Nigel, being so renowned a soldier, may keep hard discipline within the walls, and let no man enter after sundown.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At others his ventures were not so happy, and he and his troop would spur it over the drawbridge with clatter of hoofs hard at their heels and whistle of arrows about their ears.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As they passed over the drawbridge, Alleyne marked the gleam of arms in the embrasures to right and left, and they had scarce set foot upon the causeway ere a hoarse blare burst from a bugle, and, with screech of hinge and clank of chain, the ponderous bridge swung up into the air, drawn by unseen hands.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)