Meaning

4 senses

  1. A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town.

    Near-synonym: guardhouse

    Barbakane

    барбака́нbarbakán, стре́льницаstrélʹnica

    барбака́нbarbakán

    a tower that is part of a defensive structure (such as a castle)

  2. A fortress at the end of a bridge.

  3. An opening in the wall of a fortress through which the guns are levelled; a narrow loophole through which arrows and other missiles may be shot.

  4. A temporary wooden tower built for defensive purposes.

Examples

1 sentences

  1. The castle has a barbican.

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Translations

8 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town:
Русский
By meaning 1
A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town:

Origin

From Old French barbacane, of uncertain origin: compare Arabic بَرْبَخ (barbaḵ, “aqueduct,

From Old French barbacane, of uncertain origin: compare Arabic بَرْبَخ (barbaḵ, “aqueduct, sewer”), and Persian بابخانه (bâb-xâne, “gatehouse”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: barbicans

Synonyms

7 synonyms
guardhousebalistrariaarrowslitarrow-holeloopholearrow slit
Close in meaning
  • a tower that is part of a defensive structure (such as a castle):barbacan

Word family

4 related words
Relatedbartisanportcullis
Derivedbarbicanagebarbicaned

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
barberA2barbershopB2barbiebarcodebard
barbican — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto