noun · verb · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ˈtɜː(ɹ)npaɪk/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)npaɪk
CMU ARPABET:T ER1 N P AY2 K
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1626, Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, Act III, Scene 1, Yale Studies in English Vol. 28, New York: Henry Holt, 1905, p. 58, I moue vpon my axell, like a turne-pike, / Fit my face to the parties, and become / Straight one of them.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: turnstile
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A gate or bar set across a road to stop carriages, animals, and sometimes people, until a toll is paid.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., pp. 9-10, [...] 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;
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: tollgate, tollbar, turnstile
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A winding stairway.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval de frise.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: government, military, politics, war
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
A toll road, especially a toll expressway. In some places the clipped version, pike, is used for roads without tolls.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pike
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
A trajectory on a finite time interval that satisfies an optimality criterion which is associated with a cost function.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: mathematical economics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
verb
Meaning 7
To form (a road, etc.) in the manner of a turnpike road, or into a rounded form, as the path of a road.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
8
noun
Meaning 8
an expressway on which tolls are collected
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
(from 16th to 19th centuries) gates set across a road to prevent passage until a toll had been paid
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: gate
History
Etymology
From Middle English turnpyke (“spiked barrier across a road”), originally used to block access to such a road until a toll was paid. Equivalent to modern turn + pike (“shaft”).
Across languages
Translations
46 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Finnish:
pyöröportti
— frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles
German:
Drehschranke
— frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles
Turkish:
turnike
— frame consisting of two bars crossing each other at right angles
