Word.ws English Dictionary

portcullis

/pɔːtˈkʌl.ɪs/US/pɔɹtˈkʌl.ɪs/

portcullis noun: a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.

portcullis: a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc
Image: David Monniaux, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

portcullis (plural portcullises or portcullisses or (rare) portculli or (rare) portscullis)

  1. A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.
    Synonyms:
    cataract
  2. (historical) An old English coin from the reign of Elizabeth I, minted for the use of the East India Company, and bearing the picture of a portcullis on the reverse.

Verb

portcullis (third-person singular simple present portcullises or portcullisses, present participle portcullising or portcullissing, simple past and past participle portcullised or portcullissed)

  1. (usually in the passive voice) To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar.
    • […]Within my mouth you haue engaold my tongue, / Doubly portculliſt with my teeth and lippes[…]1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597...

portcullis meaning in Malayalam and Thai

portcullis in Malayalam

കോട്ടവാതിലടയ്ക്കുന്ന യന്ത്രം, എഴിചട്ടക്കൂട്

portcullis in Thai

gate in the form of a grating
ประตูชัก bprà-dtuu-chák

Synonyms of portcullis

Forms of portcullis

Noun
pluralportcullises
pluralportcullisses
plural (rare)portculli
plural (rare)portscullis
alternative form (archaic)percullice
alternative form (archaic)portclose
alternative form (archaic)portculleis
alternative form (archaic)portculles
alternative form (archaic)port cullis
alternative form (archaic)port-cullis
alternative form (obsolete)portcluse
alternative form (rare)portculis
alternative form (rare)portecullis
alternative form (rare)porte-cullis
Verb
third-person singular presentportcullises
third-person singular presentportcullisses
present participleportcullising
present participleportcullissing
past participleportcullised
pastportcullised

Origin of portcullis

From Middle English portcolyse, from Old French porte colëice, from porte (“door”) + feminine of colëiz (“sliding”), ultimately from Latin colāre.

Questions about portcullis

What does portcullis mean?
Portcullis means a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.
What is portcullis in Malayalam?
Portcullis in Malayalam is കോട്ടവാതിലടയ്ക്കുന്ന യന്ത്രം, എഴിചട്ടക്കൂട്. See Portcullis meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is portcullis?
Portcullis can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce portcullis?
Portcullis is pronounced /pɔːtˈkʌl.ɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of portcullis?
The plural of portcullis is portcullises.

Words near portcullis in the dictionary

  1. portculleises
  2. portculles
  3. portculleses
  4. portcullesses
  5. portculli
  6. portcullis
  7. portcullised
  8. portcullises
  9. portcullising
  10. portcullisses
  11. Porte

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: portcullis (page history and authors); portcullis (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-portcullis.wav.

Cite this entry: “portcullis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/portcullis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.