Library / English Dictionary

BULWARK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away

Synonyms:

breakwater; bulwark; groin; groyne; jetty; mole; seawall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bulwark" is a kind of...):

barrier (a structure or object that impedes free movement)

Derivation:

bulwark (defend with a bulwark)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A fencelike structure around a deck (usually plural)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bulwark" is a kind of...):

barrier (a structure or object that impedes free movement)

Holonyms ("bulwark" is a part of...):

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An embankment built around a space for defensive purposes

Example:

they blew the trumpet and the walls came tumbling down

Synonyms:

bulwark; rampart; wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bulwark" is a kind of...):

embankment (a long artificial mound of stone or earth; built to hold back water or to support a road or as protection)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bulwark"):

bailey (the outer defensive wall that surrounds the outer courtyard of a castle)

battlement; crenelation; crenellation (a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns)

earthwork (an earthen rampart)

fraise (sloping or horizontal rampart of pointed stakes)

merlon (a solid section between two crenels in a crenelated battlement)

Instance hyponyms:

Antonine Wall (a fortification 37 miles long across the narrowest part of southern Scotland (between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde); built in 140 to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain)

Chinese Wall; Great Wall; Great Wall of China (a fortification 1,500 miles long built across northern China in the 3rd century BC; it averages 6 meters in width)

Holonyms ("bulwark" is a part of...):

fortification; munition (defensive structure consisting of walls or mounds built around a stronghold to strengthen it)

Derivation:

bulwark (defend with a bulwark)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Defend with a bulwark

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "bulwark" is one way to...):

defend (be on the defensive; act against an attack)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

bulwark (a protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away)

bulwark (an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Now and again too there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark and a heavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell; so much heavier weather was made of it by this great rigged ship than by my home-made, lop-sided coracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)