Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A toll road, especially an expressway with tollgates.
- n. A tollgate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A frame of pikes or pointed bars, a kind of revolving cheval-de-frise, set in a narrow passage to obstruct the progress of an enemy.
- n. A turnstile.
- n. A gate set across a road, in order to stop carriages, wagons, etc., and sometimes foot-travelers, till toll is paid; a toll-bar; a toll-gate.
- n. A turnpike road.
- n. A turnpike-stair.
Wiktionary
- n. US A toll road, especially a toll expressway.
- n. A road formerly a toll road.
- v. To form (a road, etc.) in the manner of a turnpike road; into a rounded form, as the path of a road.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. 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.
- n. 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.
- n. A turnpike road.
- n. Scot. A winding stairway.
- n. (Mil.), rare A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval-de-frise.
- v. To form, as a road, in the manner of a turnpike road; to throw into a rounded form, as the path of a road.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (from 16th to 19th centuries) gates set across a road to prevent passage until a toll had been paid
- n. an expressway on which tolls are collected
Etymologies
- From Middle English turnpyke ("spiked barrier across a road"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English turnepike, spiked barrier : turnen, to turn; see turn + pike, sharp point; see pike5. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Here in Florida, the turnpike is the Ronald Reagan Turnpike and we just got a new school here in Miami-Dade County named after him.”
“Here it may be well for us to be reminded that the turnpike roads in England are very different from what we call turnpike roads in North Carolina.”
“With marketing in mind, the state’s highway department eschewed the word turnpike in favor of the more poetic parkway.”
“The turnpike is undergoing some major necessary revisions, including new pavements, expansion of lanes at busy throughfares and some very necessary night lighting.”
“The amount was supposed to be paid in turnpike stock, but like Eaton, Garrat paid his debts late. 5 Again and again, Theophilus Eaton's insolvency file portrays a journeyman printer whose economic life cannot be separated from his domestic life and whose energies were spent in the pursuit of ways to provide for his family's needs.”
Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840
“The word turnpike came into common use in the names of these roadways and companies, and is essentially used interchangeably with toll road in current terminology.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Do Markets Give Us Too Many Choices?
“I'll be five miles from my office as opposed to twenty, saving me about 200 miles of driving a week, plus saving $2.25 every day in turnpike tolls.”
“He discusses his engineering education at Cooper Union, and his work with Howard, Needles, Tamman & Bergendoff in turnpike construction.”
“US rejects proposal to toll I-80; Rendell renews push for $13 billion long-term turnpike lease”
“The blacksmith started the idea of putting up a 'turnpike' -- _i. e._ a wire -- but professed ignorance as to the method of setting it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘turnpike’.
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Moby Dick
Words of interest from the book Moby Dick.
arrant, obstreperously, coffer-dam, farrago, rejoinder, counterpane, hamper, commend, grego, dreadnought, psalmody, expostulation and 85 more...
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Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Castles and Keeps
Shamelessly ripped off from this site and others (to be named hereinafter). (Fair warning: for my own edification, I may add definitions/comments from the site, but you might want to just go there ...
abutment, adulterine, allure, angle-spur, apse, arbalest, arbalestier, arbalist, arcade, arch, armoury, arrow slit and 410 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Gaw
Words for things both tangible and anthropic. I'm in the process of spinning off hardware into ute, and people into oofy.
cum-twang, naumachia, yngling, juggernaught, bliss ninny, iliac crest, moistened bint, slumlord, spondoolies, classy lady, charnel house, electrodoméstico and 334 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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botheyesgreen's Words
joy, coriander, mandarine, avocado, strawberry, peach, hobgoblin, malfeasance, saturation, bourbon, hoopoe, quango and 22 more...
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Where the Streets Have a Name
In my life I've lived on an avenue, a drive, and uh, a park southwest. Maybe someday I can live on a mews.
street, avenue, lane, parkway, road, alley, drive, boulevard, mews, way, walk, court and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for turnpike.
chained_bear A spiral staircase, also known as corkscrew stairs. Aug 27, 2008