| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bulwark |
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| SYLLABICATION: | bul·wark |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b l w rk, -wôrk , b l- |
| NOUN: | 1. A wall or embankment raised as a defensive fortification; a rampart. 2. Something serving as a defense or safeguard: “We have seen the necessity of the Union, as our bulwark against foreign danger” (James Madison). 3. A breakwater. 4. The part of a ship's side that is above the upper deck. Often used in the plural. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: bul·warked, bul·wark·ing, bul·warks
1. To fortify with a wall, embankment, or rampart. 2. To provide defense or protection for. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bulwerk, from Middle Dutch bolwerk, from Middle High German bolwerc : bole, plank; see bhel-2 in Appendix I + werc, work (from Old High German; see werg- in Appendix I). | | SYNONYMS: | bulwark, barricade, breastwork, earthwork, rampart, bastion, parapet These nouns refer literally to structures used as a defense against attack. A bulwark can be a mound of earth, an embankment, or a wall-like fortification. Barricade usually implies hasty construction to meet an imminent threat. Breastwork denotes a low defensive wall, especially a temporary one hurriedly built. Earthwork is a defensive construction of earth. A rampart, the main defensive structure around a guarded place, is permanent, high, and broad. A bastion is a projecting section of a fortification from which defenders have a wide range of view and fire. Parapet applies to any low fortification, typically a wall atop a rampart. Of these words bulwark and bastion are the most frequently used to refer figuratively to something regarded as being a safeguard or a source of protection: “The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government” (Franklin D. Roosevelt). A free press is one of the bastions of a democracy.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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