Turnpike Meaning
/ˈtɜː(ɹ)npaɪk/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA 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.
nounA gate or bar set across a road to stop carriages, animals, and sometimes people, until a toll is paid.
Sentence Examples
At what time exactly did you enter the turnpike?
If you don't get off here, you'll have to get on the turnpike.
CEFR Practice Quiz
To get to the city quickly we drove on the ____ and paid a toll.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The main ____ road connects the two large cities and allows for much faster travel across the region today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English turnpyke (“spiked barrier across a road”), originally used to block access to such a road until a toll was paid. Equivalent to modern turn + pike (“shaft”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] Pope Pelagius, then Bishop of Rome […] thereupon assum'd the Power of opening and shutting Heaven's Gates; and he afterwards setting a Price or Toll upon the Entrance, as we do here at passing a Turn-pike […]"
— 1728, Daniel Defoe, The Political History of the Devil, Part II, ch. 1:
"Eleven Pair of Mills ſtand within Four Miles of the Place, which bring a great Trade to it: But the Road is by this means ſo continually torn, that it is one of the worſt Turnpikes about London."
— 1769, Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 7th edition, volume II, page 184:
"[T]here is a bundle of pawnbrokers' duplicates, those turnpike tickets on the road of poverty ..."
— 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
"In the monograph we discuss a number of results concerning turnpike properties in the calculus of variations and optimal control which were obtained by the author in the last ten years."
— 2006, Alexander J. Zaslavski, Turnpike Properties in the Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control, →ISBN:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
To get to the city quickly we drove on the ____ and paid a toll.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The main ____ road connects the two large cities and allows for much faster travel across the region today.