Definitions

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

  • noun A toll road, especially an expressway with tollgates.
  • noun A tollgate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A frame of pikes or pointed bars, a kind of revolving cheval-de-frise, set in a narrow passage to obstruct the progress of an enemy.
  • noun A turnstile.
  • noun A gate set across a road, in order to stop carriages, wagons, etc., and sometimes foot-travelers, till toll is paid; a toll-bar; a toll-gate.
  • noun A turnpike road.
  • noun A turnpike-stair.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To form, as a road, in the manner of a turnpike road; to throw into a rounded form, as the path of a road.
  • noun A frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles and turning on a post or pin, to hinder the passage of beasts, but admitting a person to pass between the arms; a turnstile. See turnstile, 1.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A turnpike road.
  • noun Scot. A winding stairway.
  • noun (Mil.), rare A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval-de-frise.
  • noun a man who collects tolls at a turnpike.
  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US A toll road, especially a toll expressway.
  • noun A road formerly a toll road.
  • verb To form (a road, etc.) in the manner of a turnpike road; into a rounded form, as the path of a road.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (from 16th to 19th centuries) gates set across a road to prevent passage until a toll had been paid
  • noun an expressway on which tolls are collected

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English turnepike, spiked barrier : turnen, to turn; see turn + pike, sharp point; see pike.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English turnpyke ("spiked barrier across a road").

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