bridge

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A structure spanning and providing passage over a gap or barrier, such as a river or roadway.
• noun Something resembling or analogous to this structure in form or function.
• noun The upper bony ridge of the human nose.
• noun The part of a pair of eyeglasses that rests against this ridge.
• noun A fixed or removable replacement for one or several but not all of the natural teeth, usually anchored at each end to a natural tooth.
• noun A thin, upright piece of wood in some stringed instruments that supports the strings above the soundboard.
• noun A transitional passage connecting two subjects or movements.
• noun Nautical A crosswise platform or enclosed area above the main deck of a ship from which the ship is controlled.
• noun A long stick with a notched plate at one end, used to steady the cue in billiards.
• noun The hand used as a support to steady the cue.
• noun Any of various instruments for measuring or comparing the characteristics, such as impedance or inductance, of a conductor.
• noun An electrical shunt.
• noun Chemistry An intramolecular connection that spans atoms or groups of atoms.
• transitive verb To build a bridge over.
• transitive verb To cross by or as if by a bridge.
• noun Any of several card games derived from whist, usually played by four people in two partnerships, in which trump is determined by bidding and the hand opposite the declarer is played as a dummy.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A card game for four players, a variant of whist, called also (originally) bridge whist.
• noun Any structure which spans a body of water, or a valley, road, or the like, and affords passage or conveyance.
• noun The upper line or ridge of the nose, formed by the junction of the two nasal bones.
• noun In engraving, a board resting on end-cleats, on which the engraver rests his hand in working.
• noun A wall, generally made of fire-brick, which is built at both ends of a reverberatory furnace, to a certain height, in order to isolate the space in which the metallurgical operation is conducted.
• noun In gunnery, the two pieces of timber which connect the two transoms of a gun-carriage.
• noun In metallurgy, the platform or staging by which ore, fuel, etc., are conveyed to the mouth of a smelting-furnace.
• noun That part of a stringed musical instrument over which the strings are stretched, and by which they are raised above the sounding-board.
• noun Nautical, a raised platform extending from side to side of a steamship above the rail, forward of amidships, for the use and convenience of the officer in charge.
• noun A metal bar supported at one or both ends of a watch-plate, and forming a bearing for a part of the works.
• noun The balance-rynd of a millstone.
• noun In car-building, a timber, bar, or beam which is supported at each end.
• noun In euchre, a position where one side has scored four points and the other only one.
• noun In electricity, an apparatus for measuring the resistance of a conductor, the arrangement of whose parts bears some resemblance to a bridge. A common form is called Wheat-stone's bridge, from the inventor. See resistance.
• To build a bridge or bridges on or over; span with a bridge: as, to bridge a river.
• To make a bridge or bridges for.
• Figuratively, to span or get over; serve as or make a way of passing or overcoming: as, conversation bridged the intervals of the play; to bridge over a difficulty.
• In card-playing, to bend (a card) so that a confederate can cut the pack wherever the bent card is placed.
• In wrestling, to make a bridge of the body by pressing the head and feet on the ground and bowing up the back, to prevent the opponent from securing a fall.
• noun An arrangement of circuits, electric or magnetic, whereby the bridge circuit connects from a point or one circuit to a point of another circuit, and thereby permits a comparison of the parts of the two circuits.
• noun In billiards: A notched piece of wood, attached to a long handle, used as a support for the cue when the ball is in such a position that the hand cannot conveniently be used as a rest.
• noun The thumb and forefinger used as a rest over which the billiard-cue glides. The best players now use the hooked fore-finger, infolding the small end of the cue.
• noun In mathematics, the crossing-place of two sheets of a Riemann's surface.
• noun A narrow-railed, movable plank extending across the flies of a theater: used in raising angels, fairies, etc., in spectacular plays, and worked by ropes and pulleys from the gridiron.
• noun A platform or scaffold hung by ropes, used by mechanics in painting or finishing walls.
• noun An arched easting fastened to the cover of a pump which guides the free end of the plunger or piston-rod.
• noun In mining: A platform on wheels running on rails for covering the mouth of a shaft or slope.
• noun A track or platform which passes over an inclined haulage-way and can be raised out of the way of ascending and descending cars.
• noun An air-crossing.
• noun A narrow strip, placed across an opening, for supporting something without closing too much of the opening. Also bridge-bar, bridge-piece.