Definition of "bulwark"

bulwark

/ˈbʊl.wək/

noun
plural bulwarks
1. A defensive wall or rampart.
  Quotations
  Let thouſands die, their ſlaughtered CarkaſſesShal ſerue for walles and bulwarkes to the reſt:
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act III, scene iii
2. A defense or safeguard.
  Quotations
  The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence, […] the floating bulwark of the island.
  1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press
3. A breakwater.
4. (nautical) 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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 11
5. (figurative) Any means of defence or security.
verb
third-person singular simple present bulwarks, present participle bulwarking, simple past and past participle bulwarked
1. (transitive) To fortify something with a wall or rampart.
2. (transitive) To provide protection of defense for something.

Definition of "bulwark"

bulwark

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb