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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A tower or other fortification on the approach to a castle or town, especially one at a gate or drawbridge.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In medieval fortification, an outwork of a castle or fortified place. Properly, a post in which a force could be sheltered so as to be ready for a sortie to protect communications, etc. Such a work frequently supplied an advantageous means for taking an assailant in the flank, and, while communicating with the main post, seldom contained the chief entrance to it.
  2. n. A loophole.
  3. n. A channel or scupper in a parapet for the discharge of water.
  4. n. A scansorial barbet of the family Capitonidæ and subfamily Pogonorhynchinæ, or the genus Pogonias in a broad sense. The barbicans are all African, like the barbions.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town
  2. n. A fortress at the end of a bridge.
  3. n. An opening in the wall of a fortress through which the guns are levelled; a narrow loophole through which arrows and other missiles may be shot.
  4. n. A temporary wooden tower built for defensive purposes.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A tower or advanced work defending the entrance to a castle or city, as at a gate or bridge. It was often large and strong, having a ditch and drawbridge of its own.
  2. n. An opening in the wall of a fortress, through which missiles were discharged upon an enemy.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a tower that is part of a defensive structure (such as a castle)

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old French barbacane, from Medieval Latin barbacana, from Persian barbārkhān : barbār, guard (from Old Iranian *parivāraka-, protective; see wer-4 in Indo-European roots) + khān, house (from Middle Persian).

Examples

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘barbican’.

Comments

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  • Casey "Ahead, a vast grilled barrier like a castle barbican swam out of the gloom...and beyond it, they caught their first glimpse of Blaine the Mono." From The Wastelands by Stephen King. Jan 8, 2011

  • qroqqa Two concert venues in London are Barbican and Kenwood. Jun 10, 2009

  • reesetee Heehee. Jun 10, 2009

  • asativum I always thought this was the container the Barbicide came in at the barber shop. My bad. Jun 10, 2009

  • chained_bear Fortified outwork defending the gate of a castle or town.

    Also, capped, the former home of the RSC in London. Aug 24, 2008

‘barbican’ has been looked up 1520 times, loved by 3 people, added to 24 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.