turnpike

CEFRB2

/ˈtɜː(ɹ)npaɪk/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A road that requires payment to use.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

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

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.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings
  1. A winding stairway.

  2. 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.

  3. A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval de frise.

More examples

In context
  • 1626, Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, Act III, Scene 1, Yale Studies in English Vol. 28, New York: Henry Holt, 1905, p. 58, I moue vpon my axell, like a turne-pike, / Fit my face to the parties, and become / Straight one of them.

  • Ramsay stabbed Ruthven accordingly and James lending his assistance they thrust the wounded man down the turnpike by which Ramsay had ascended Voices and steps were now heard advancing upwards and Ramsay knowing the accents called out to sir Thomas Erskine to...

  • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., pp. 9-10, […] it was rumour’d that an order of the Government was to be issued out, to place Turn-pikes and Barriers on the Road, to prevent Peoples travelling;

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

To get to the city quickly we drove on the blank and paid a toll.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”).