Definition of "drawbridge" [draw•bridge]

• A bridge that can be raised or drawn aside either to prevent access or to permit passage beneath it. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The time it takes to operate the drawbridge is a significant fraction of the headways of the BRT service proposed to run on the bridge."
• "One cannot have this both ways and the proposed second drawbridge is arguably the worst of all possible outcomes here."
• "Betty desired the man to drive to the drawbridge; and, at the sound of the word drawbridge, various associations of ideas with the drawbridges of ancient times were called up in Miss Warwick's imagination."