| Portcullis 1. (n.) A grating of iron or of timbers pointed with iron, hung over the gateway of a fortress, to be let down to prevent the entrance of an enemy. 2. (n.) An English coin of the reign of Elizabeth, struck for the use of the East India Company; -- so called from its bearing the figure of a portcullis on the reverse. 3. (v. t.) To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar. Thesaurus Entries advanced work, balistraria, bank, banquette, barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barricade, barrier, bartizan, bastion, battlement, breastwork, bulwark, casemate, cheval-de-frise, circumvallation, contravallation, counterscarp, curtain, demibastion, dike, drawbridge, earthwork, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment, fence, fieldwork, fortalice, fortification, glacis, loophole, lunette, machicolation, mantelet, merlon, mound, outwork, palisade, parados, parapet, portcullis, postern gate, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, sally port, scarp, sconce, stockade, tenaille, vallation, vallum, work |