gate

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A door-like barrier in a fence or wall that can be opened and closed.

   He pushed open the garden gate and walked up to the house.

2. 2
   noun

   A numbered exit at an airport where passengers board a plane.

   Our flight is now boarding at gate 12.

3. 3
   noun

   A movable barrier that controls entry or passage.

   The gate at the railway crossing lifted once the train had passed.

From Middle English gate (the forms ȝate and ȝeat yielded the dialectal doublet yate), from the plural of Old English ġeat (specifically gatu), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą (“hole, opening”). See also Old Norse gat, Swedish and Dutch gat, Low German Gaat, Gööt.

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