tpke

Noun

turnpike (plural turnpikes)

1. A frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles and turning on a post or pin, to hinder the passage of animals, but admitting a person to pass between the arms.
   • I moue vpon my axell, like a turne-pike, / Fit my face to the parties, and become / Straight one of them.1626, Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, Act III, Scene 1, Yale Studies in English Vol. 28, New York: Henry Holt, 1905, p. 58

   Synonyms:

   turnstile

2. A gate or bar set across a road to stop carriages, animals, and sometimes people, until a toll is paid.
   • […] it was rumour’d that an order of the Government was to be issued out, to place Turn-pikes and Barriers on the Road, to prevent Peoples travelling;1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., pp. 9-10

   Synonyms:

   tollgate, tollbar, turnstile

3. (Scotland) A winding stairway.
   • Ramsay stabbed Ruthven accordingly and James lending his assistance they thrust the wounded man down the turnpike by which Ramsay had ascended Voices and steps were now heard advancing upwards and Ramsay knowing the accents called out to sir Thomas Erskine to come up the turnpike stair even to the...1830, Sir Walter Scott, History of Scotland in two volumes Vol II, A AND W GALIGNANI, pages 463-464
4. A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval de frise.
5. (US) A toll road, especially a toll expressway. In some places the clipped version, pike, is used for roads without tolls.
   • Eleven Pair of Mills ſtand within Four Miles of the Place, which bring a great Trade to it: But the Road is by this means ſo continually torn, that it is one of the worſt Turnpikes about London.1769, Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 7th edition, volume II, page 184

   Synonyms:

   pike

6. (mathematical economics) A trajectory on a finite time interval that satisfies an optimality criterion which is associated with a cost function.
   • In the monograph we discuss a number of results concerning turnpike properties in the calculus of variations and optimal control which were obtained by the author in the last ten years.2006, Alexander J. Zaslavski, Turnpike Properties in the Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control, →ISBN

See all 7 meanings of turnpike