Definition of "bulwark" []

• A wall or embankment raised as a defensive fortification; a rampart. (noun)
• Something serving as a defense or safeguard: "We have seen the necessity of the Union, as our bulwark against foreign danger” ( James Madison). (noun)
• A breakwater. (noun)
• The part of a ship's side that is above the upper deck. Often used in the plural. (noun)
• To fortify with a wall, embankment, or rampart. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "Whether this new Iraqi government — the one that will stand as American forces are withdrawn — will be a long-term bulwark is a question that can only be answered over time, of course."
• "Depending on what it says, that report will either serve as a short-term bulwark against Democratic calls for withdrawal or will make withdrawal a politically unstoppable force."
• "Darcy and Mike: You know, it's interesting that, for all the checks and balances in the Constitution, what may actually be the most important bulwark is something as simple as term limits."