bulwark - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English bulwerk, from Middle Dutch bolwerk, bolwerc and Middle Low German bolwerk, equivalent to bole (“tree trunk”) +‎ work. Cognate with German Bollwerk, Danish bolværk, Swedish bålverk, Dutch bolwerk. Doublet of boulevard (from French boulevard, from Dutch); cognate with Portuguese and Spanish baluarte and Italian baluardo.

bulwark (plural bulwarks)

  1. A defensive wall or rampart.
  2. A defense or safeguard.
  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.
  5. (figurative) Any means of defence or security.
    The party stalwarts constitute the bulwark that ensures the president's term of office.
    • 2024 December 12, Eric Cortellessa, “Donald Trump 2024 TIME Person of the Year”, in Time‎[1], archived from the original on 22 December 2024:
      Willing to upend the nation’s postwar role as a bulwark against authoritarianism, he promises to usher in a foreign policy rooted in “America First” transactionalism.

defensive wall or rampart

defense or safeguard

bulwark (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.