Word Direct Answers

What does "turnpike" mean?

Turnpike: 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.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A turnpike road. De Foe.
  2. 3.A winding stairway. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.
  3. 4.(Mil.) A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval-de- frise. [R.] Turnpike man, a man who collects tolls at a turnpike. -- Turnpike road, a road on which turnpikes, or tollgates, are established by law, in order to collect from the users tolls to defray the cost of building, repairing, etc.
  4. 5.To form, as a road, in the manner of a turnpike road; into a rounded form, as the path of a road. Knowles.

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