bascule
/ˈbaskjuːl
/(also bascule bridge)
noun
1A type of bridge with a section which can be raised and lowered using counterweights.This was the first use of a V-shaped pier on a bascule bridge, and it provided several advantages, including less restricted views of the water due to the openness of the pier, larger transverse openings, and improved span proportions....
- As the procession moved up river, Tower Bridge raised its bascules in tribute while gun salutes came from the Tower of London and HMS Belfast.
- Eight bascule bridges intersect with the upper roadway, as do two elevated transit lines - and 60,000 pedestrians on the Loop.
1.1A movable section of road forming part of a bascule bridge.
Origin
Late 19th century: earlier denoting a lever apparatus of which one end is raised while the other is lowered, from French (earlier bacule), 'see-saw', from battre 'to bump' + cul 'buttocks'.
- leewardly
- lee wave
- leeway
- Lee–Enfield
- Lee–Enfield rifle
- Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
- left
- left and right
- left-and-right shot
- left back
- left bank
- left bower
- left brain
- left-brained
- left-click
- left coast
- left face
- left field
- left-footed
- left hand
- left-hand drive
- left-handed
- left-handedly
- left-handedness
- left-hander