portcullis
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English portcolyse, from Old French porte colëice, from porte (“door”) + feminine of colëiz (“sliding”), ultimately from Latin colāre.
Pronunciation
Noun
portcullis (plural portcullises or portcullisses or (rare) portculli or (rare) portscullis)
- A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the entrance to a castle, fort, etc.
- (historical) An English coin of the reign of Elizabeth I, struck for the use of the East India Company, and bearing the figure of a portcullis on the reverse.
Translations
gate in the form of a grating
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Verb
portcullis (third-person singular simple present portcullises or portcullisses, present participle portcullising or portcullissing, simple past and past participle portcullised or portcullissed)
- To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
- […] Within my mouth you haue engaold my tongue, / Doubly portculliſt with my teeth and lippes […]
Further reading
portcullis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “portcullis”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
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