barricade
barricade Lexical Profile
barricade Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An improvised or portable barrier erected across a street, passage, or entrance to block movement or prevent access.
"City workers set up orange wooden barricades around the construction zone to keep pedestrians safe."
Any obstacle, hindrance, or impediment to progress, communication, or understanding.
"Years of mutual distrust had created an emotional barricade between the two business partners."
• verb
To block, close off, or defend a street, entrance, or room with an improvised barrier.
"The shopkeepers barricaded their front doors with heavy timber before the hurricane made landfall."
To shut oneself or others inside a confined space by blocking the entrances from within.
"During the rehearsal, the director barricaded himself in his office to finish rewriting the final scene."
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century from French 'barricade', derived from Provençal 'barricada', from 'barrica' (barrel), because early street barriers—most famously during the 1588 Day of the Barricades in Paris—were hastily constructed from wooden casks filled with earth and stones.