Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One of the upright partitions dividing a ship into compartments and serving to add structural rigidity and to prevent the spread of leakage or fire.
- n. A partition or wall serving a similar purpose in a vehicle, such as an aircraft or spacecraft.
- n. A wall or an embankment, as in a mine or along a waterfront, that acts as a protective barrier.
- n. Chiefly New England A horizontal or sloping structure providing access to a cellar stairway.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A partition. Specifically— A partition in a ship to form separate apartments, or a water-tight partition placed in the hull to prevent the passage of water or fire from one part to another in case of accident; also, a screen, as for protection in a fight.
- n. A water-face of a wharf, pier, or sea-wall.
- n. A horizontal or inclined door giving access from the outside of a house to the cellar.
- n. In hydraulic mining the pressure-box or -tank at the end of a water-ditch or flume from which the water-pipes lead to the nozles.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical A vertical partition dividing the hull into separate compartments; often made watertight to prevent excessive flooding if the ship's hull is breached.
- n. A similar partition in an aircraft or spacecraft.
- n. Mechanically, a partition or panel through which connectors pass, or a connector designed to pass through a partition.
- n. A pressure-resistant sealed barrier to any fluid in a large structure.
- n. A retaining wall along a waterfront.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Naut.) A partition in a vessel, to separate apartments on the same deck.
- n. A structure of wood or stone, to resist the pressure of earth or water; a partition wall or structure, as in a mine; the limiting wall along a water front.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a partition that divides a ship or plane into compartments
Etymologies
- bulk + head (Wiktionary)
- bulk, stall, partition (perhaps of Scandinavian origin) + head. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And the best seats include exit row seats or seats that in what are known as the bulkhead, the first row of seats.”
“You apparently decided the bulkhead was a paper hoop and tried to dive through it," said Paresi.”
“This bulkhead, which is about four feet high, should be raised to a height of about eight feet.”
“On a shelf set in the bulkhead was a chart, a telephone receiver, speaking tubes, dials with red and black hands, an array of electrometers, pressure gauges.”
“Along the bulkhead are the fancy cracker boxes, tempting a man to take one every time he goes below, and under the racks are our kerosene and molasses barrels.”
“At the foremost end of this division of the ship, so far as it was possible for my eyes to pierce the darkness -- for it seems that this run went clear to the fore-hold bulkhead, that is to say, under the powder-room, to where the fore-hold began -- were stowed the spare sails, ropes for gear, and a great variety of furniture for the equipment of a ship's yards and masts.”
“The space between the two ports was occupied by a rack, on which were arranged with much taste, a number of richly-embossed arms, pistols, swords, and daggers -- and against the bulkhead was another stand, filled with muskets and cutlasses, brightly polished.”
“But "bulkhead" seats in the first row of the coach cabin won't be as roomy as frequent fliers are accustomed to.”
The Wall Street Journal: Airlines Are at It Again: Less Legroom
“Going outside, I found the servant had neglected to open the 'bulkhead' door, as usual, and my wise little biddy had concluded to go down-cellar through the kitchen.”
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy
“He turned that way, struck another match, and discovered the white face of the other instrument looking at him from the bulkhead, meaningly, not to be gainsaid, as though the wisdom of men were made unerring by the indifference of matter.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bulkhead’.
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Some Ship-building Terms
Ship builders' terms, from stem to stern (these words aren't on the list).
ledge, lay, leveling-block, mold-loft, munnion, planking, planking-clamp, strake, ram-line, ram, rib, ribband and 248 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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• The bonhomous lynchpin - And other ...
plinth, starboard, bonhomie, bulkhead, brethren, gabardine, anon, lynchpin, vine, yoke, sequin, marigold and 12 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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Niels's Words
bien-pensant, pro re nata, zeitgeist, naïve, quod erat demonst..., dramastic, mélange, amanuensis, heuristic, hermeneutic, gist, gumption and 157 more...
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ill-suited words
Words that don't seem to fit their definitions.
jejune, palimpsest, refulgent, splenetic, pulchritude, bulkhead, crepuscule
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Airborn
Words and phrases from Kenneth Oppel's book, Airborn.
running lights, starboard, bow, gondola, bullhorn, rudder man, gas cell, keel, catwalk, stern, cargo bay, machinist and 152 more...
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Flanges &c
Amusingly-named mechanical and electrical parts to be found in a particular warehouse in Newfoundland
nut, relief valve, cotter, shaft, bushing (inner bo..., sleeve, bushing (link), thrust washer, slip yoke, bushing (swing post), half pump coupling, main teledyne spool and 344 more...
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Red Seas Under Red Skies
Words and phrase from Scott Lynch's book, Red Seas Under Red Skies.
legate, pugnacity, weevil, steady as a dry-d..., chit, sans, apprise, forfend, ken, expatriate, enclave, scrubs and 220 more...
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Keep on truckin'
Gleanings from copies of Movin' Out, "The Journal of the Trucking Industry", and American Trucker, an advertising magazine, found at a highway service area
reefer, big rig, convoy, bobtail, cabover, tricked out, pete, peterbilt, intake brackets, sleeper, dispatcher, company driver and 138 more...
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What Keeps Your Ears Apart?
A sort of stuffie of words/phrases that include "head"
head of cattle, out of one's head, head of the stairs, come to a head, head of steam, head of the page, win by a head, head taller, headway, fountainhead, heads or tails, hit the nail on t... and 143 more...
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pynchonesque
fondue, codicil, variorum, blowgun, disk jockey, malfunctioning, convoluted, grabassing, tranquilizers, hieroglyphic, hypodermic, diffusion and 83 more...
Tweets
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Prolagus
(Rox in the box, by The Decemberists) Jan 19, 2011