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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Turnpike


TURN'PIKE, noun [turn and pike.] Strictly, a frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles, and turning on a post or pin, to hinder the passage of breasts, but admitting a person to pass between the arms.

1. A gate set across a road to stop travelers and carriages till toll is paid for keeping the road in repair.

2. A turnpike road.

3. In military affairs, a beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage.

TURN'PIKE, verb transitive To form, as a road, in the manner of a turnpike road; to throw the path of a road into a rounded form.