bridge
/bɹɪd͡ʒ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms bridges bridging bridged brig bridg brigge
- noun A construction spanning a waterway, ravine, or valley from a height, allowing for the passage of vehicles, pedestrians, trains, etc. “The rope bridge crosses the river.”
- noun (anatomy) The upper bony ridge of the human nose. “Rugby players often break the bridge of their noses.”
- noun (dentistry) A prosthesis replacing one or several adjacent teeth. “The dentist pulled out the decayed tooth and put in a bridge.”
- noun (bowling) The gap between the holes on a bowling ball
- noun (nautical) An elevated platform above the upper deck of a mechanically propelled ship from which it is navigated and from which all activities on deck can be seen and controlled by the captain, etc; smaller ships have a wheelhouse, and sailing ships were controlled from a quarterdeck. “The first officer is on the bridge.”
- noun (music, lutherie) The piece, on string instruments, that supports the strings from the sounding board.
- noun (billiards, snooker, pool) A particular form of one hand placed on the table to support the cue when making a shot in cue sports.
- noun (billiards, snooker, pool) A cue modified with a convex arch-shaped notched head attached to the narrow end, used to support a player's (shooter's) cue for extended or tedious shots. Also called a spider.
- verb To be or make a bridge over something. “With enough cable, we can bridge this gorge.”
- verb To span as if with a bridge. “The two groups were able to bridge their differences.”
- verb (music) To transition from one piece or section of music to another without stopping. “We need to bridge that jam into "The Eleven".”
- verb (computing, communication) To connect two or more computer buses, networks etc. with a bridge.
- verb (wrestling) To go to the bridge position.
- verb (roller derby) To employ the bridge tactic. (See Noun section.)
- noun (card games) Any of a certain family of trick-taking card games. “Bidding is an essential element of the game of bridge.”
- noun (usually) A card game played with four players playing as two teams of two players each. “She played in a bridge tournament in Las Vegas last year.”
- proper noun An occupational surname for a bridgekeeper
- proper noun A habitational surname for someone living near a bridge or at a location called Bridge or Bridges
- proper noun A toponymic surname for someone from Bruges
- proper noun A village and civil parish in Canterbury district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR1854). Recorded as Brige in 1086 (DB), from Old English brycg.
Synonyms
contract bridge span bridge circuit bridgework nosepiece bridge deck bridge over
Etymology
From Middle English brigge, from Old English brycġ (“bridge”), from Proto-West Germanic *bruggju, from Proto-Germanic *brugjō, *brugjǭ (“bridge”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrēw- (“wooden flooring, decking, bridge”).
Cognate with Scots brig, brigg (“bridge”), Yola burge (“bridge”), North Frisian brag, Bröch (“bridge”), Saterland Frisian Brääch, Brääg (“bridge”), West Frisian brêge (“bridge”), Dutch brug (“bridge”), German Brücke (“bridge”), Limburgish brögk (“bridge”), Luxembourgish Bréck (“bridge”), Vilamovian bryk (“bridge”), Yiddish בריק (brik, “bridge”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål brygge (“jetty, pier, wharf”), Faroese, Icelandic bryggja (“pier”), Norwegian Nynorsk brygge, bryggje (“jetty, pier, wharf”), Swedish brygga (“bridge; pier”).
The verb is from Middle English briggen, from Old English brycġian (“to bridge, make a causeway, pave”), derived from the noun. Cognate with Dutch bruggen (“to bridge”), Middle Low German bruggen (“to bridge”), Old High German bruccōn (“to bridge”) (whence Modern German brücken).
The sense of a part of a stringed instrument is a semantic loan from German Steg, from Old High German steg.
From the earlier game biritch, probably from Russian бирю́ч (birjúč) or бири́ч (biríč); else from Turkish bir-üç (“one-three”).
English surname, from the noun bridge.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A structure, usually of wood, stone, brick, or iron, erected over a river or other water course, or over a chasm, railroad, etc., to make a passageway from one bank to the other.
- noun Anything supported at the ends, which serves to keep some other thing from resting upon the object spanned, as in engraving, watchmaking, etc., or which forms a platform or staging over which something passes or is conveyed.
- verb To build a bridge or bridges on or over; as, to bridge a river.
- verb To open or make a passage, as by a bridge.
Etymology [OE. brig, brigge, brug, brugge, AS. brycg, bricg; akin to Fries. bregge, D. brug, OHG. bruccu, G. brücke, Icel. bryggja pier, bridge, Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and prob. Icel. br bridge, Sw. & Dan. bro bridge, pavement, and possibly to E. brow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bridge”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details