TURNPIKE

turnpike, toll road

(noun) an expressway on which tolls are collected

turnpike

(noun) (from 16th to 19th centuries) gates set across a road to prevent passage until a toll had been paid

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

turnpike (plural turnpikes)

A frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles and turning on a post or pin, to hinder the passage of animals, but admitting a person to pass between the arms; a turnstile.

A gate or bar set across a road to stop carriages, animals, and sometimes people, until a toll is paid,

Synonym: tollgate

(Scotland) A winding stairway.

(military) A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval de frise.

A toll road, especially a toll expressway.

(mathematical economics) A trajectory on a finite time interval that satisfies an optimality criterion which is associated with a cost function.

Verb

turnpike (third-person singular simple present turnpikes, present participle turnpiking, simple past and past participle turnpiked)

To form (a road, etc.) in the manner of a turnpike road; into a rounded form, as the path of a road.

Source: Wiktionary


Turn"pike`, n. Etym: [Turn + pike.]

1. A frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles and turning on a post or pin, to hinder the passage of beasts, but admitting a person to pass between the arms; a turnstile. See Turnstile, 1. I move upon my axle like a turnpike. B. Jonson.

2. A gate or bar set across a road to stop carriages, animals, and sometimes people, till toll is paid for keeping the road in repair; a tollgate.

3. A turnpike road. De Foe.

4. A winding stairway. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

5. (Mil.)

Definition: A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval-de- frise. [R.] Turnpike man, a man who collects tolls at a turnpike.

– Turnpike road, a road on which turnpikes, or tollgates, are established by law, in order to collect from the users tolls to defray the cost of building, repairing, etc.

Turn"pike`, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Turnpiked; p. pr. & vb. n. Turnpiking.]

Definition: To form, as a road, in the manner of a turnpike road; into a rounded form, as the path of a road. Knowles.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

29 April 2024

SUBDUCTION

(noun) a geological process in which one edge of a crustal plate is forced sideways and downward into the mantle below another plate


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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