bulwarks

Noun

bulwark (plural bulwarks)

1. A defensive wall or rampart.
   • Let thouſands die, their ſlaughtered Carkaſſes
     Shal ſerue for walles and bulwarkes to the reſt:c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
2. A defense or safeguard.
   • The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence, […] the floating bulwark of the island.1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC
3. A breakwater.
4. The planking or plating along the sides of a nautical vessel above her gunwale that reduces the likelihood of seas washing over the gunwales and people being washed overboard.
   • Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 11
5. (figuratively) Any means of defence or security.
   • The party stalwarts constitute the bulwark that ensures the president's term of office.

See all 7 meanings of bulwark