portcullis

English

A portcullis in Stirling, Scotland

In heraldry, as in the arms of Westminster, portcullises are often depicted with chains attached.

Alternative forms

• percullice (archaic)
• portclose (archaic)
• portcluse (obsolete)
• portculis (rare)
• portculleis (archaic)
• portculles (archaic)
• port cullis, port-cullis (archaic)
• portecullis, porte-cullis (rare)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɔːtˈkʌl.ɪs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /pɔɹtˈkʌl.ɪs/

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 entrance to a castle, fort, etc.
2. (historical) An English coin of the reign of Elizabeth I, struck for the use of the East India Company, and bearing the figure of a portcullis on the reverse.

Translations

gate in the form of a grating

• Belarusian: ге́рса f (hjérsa)
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Czech: padací mříž (cs) f
• Danish: faldgitter
• Dutch: valhek (nl) n, valpoort f
• Esperanto: herso (eo)
• French: herse (fr) f
• German: Fallgatter (de) n
• Hebrew: שער מתרומם m
• Hungarian: hullórostély
• Italian: inferriata (it) f, saracinesca (it) f
• Polish: brona (pl) f
• Portuguese: grade levadiça f, rastrilho m
• Russian: воро́та подъёмной решётки n pl (voróta podʺjómnoj rešótki), воро́та крепостны́е n pl (voróta krepostnýje), опускна́я решётка f (opusknája rešótka)
• Slovene: dvižna vrata n pl
• Spanish: rastrillo (es) m
• Swedish: fällgaller n
• Thai: ประตูชัก (bprà-dtuu-chák)
• Turkish: tarla sürgüsü
• Ukrainian: герса f (hersa)

Verb

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

1. To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar.
   • 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     […] Within my mouth you haue engaold my tongue, / Doubly portculliſt with my teeth and lippes […]

Further reading

• portcullis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “portcullis”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)