bulwark

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to defend with a bulwark

   I bulwarked our position.

2. 2
   noun

   The planking or plating along the sides of a nautical vessel above her gunwale that reduces the likelihood of seas washing over the gunwales and people being washed overboard.

   Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft.

3. 3
   noun

   Any means of defence or security.

   The party stalwarts constitute the bulwark that ensures the president's term of office.

Simplified etymology

Bulwark, recorded from late Middle English, comes from the same German and Dutch word that French borrowed as boulevard. Its component elements are related to bole ‘the stem or trunk of a tree’ and work.

From Middle English bulwerk, from Middle Dutch bolwerk, bolwerc and Middle Low German bolwerk, equivalent to bole (“tree trunk”) + work. Cognate with German Bollwerk, Danish bolværk, Swedish bålverk, Dutch bolwerk. Doublet of boulevard (from French boulevard, from Dutch); cognate with Portuguese and Spanish baluarte and Italian baluardo.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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