Forms: 5 bulwerke, 5–6 bul-, bullwork(e, 6 bolwark, (bulwarge), 6–7 bulwarke, (7 burwarke), 9 bullwark, 6– bulwark. [Cf. Du., MHG. bolwerk, mod.G. bollwerk, Da. bulværk, Sw. bolverk; the word is not recorded in ON., and the Da. and Sw. forms may be of German origin. Prof. Skeat, regarding the word as ultimately Scandinavian, derives it from the words represented in Eng. by BOLE and WORK, in which case the primitive sense would be ‘a work constructed of tree-trunks.’ Others would connect the first element with the MHG. verb boln to throw, on the ground that the MHG. word seems in some cases to have meant a machine for throwing large stones. Both etymologies are found in early mod. German authors. The Teut. word was borrowed in French as boullewerc, bollewerc, whence boulever, mod. BOULEVARD.]
1. A substantial defensive work of earth, or other material; a rampart, a fortification. Now only arch. or poet.
c. 1418. Gesta Hen. V. (1850), 17. Unum forte fortalitium quod nos ‘barbican’ sui communis ‘bulwerke’ appellamus.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xi. Barbycans and also bulworkes huge Afore the towne made for hyghe refuge.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 517. Syr John de Pyguygny … wan within the bulwerkys of the same [Amyas].
1535. Coverdale, Habak. ii. 1. Set me vpon my bulworke, to loke & se what he wolde saye.
1611. Bible, Deut. xx. 20. Thou shalt build bulwarkes against the city that maketh warre with thee.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., viii. 294. They have not the form of a regular Bulwark.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., VI. 11. With bulwarks strong their city he enclosed.
1813. Scott, Trierm., III. iii. Bulwarks and battlement and spire In the red gulf we spy.
b. A breakwater, mole, sea-wall; an embankment confining the bed of a river. Also fig.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., II. VII. (Arb.), 133. The famous ryuer of Padus … hath the greate mountaynes cauled Alpes … lyinge at the backe therof as it were bulwarges full of moysture.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589), 320. Men provide bulwarks and banks against a river that useth to overflow.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 11. At Magdalen College, in the water-walks, near the Bull-work called Dover Peer.
1861. Motley, Dutch Rep., II. 271. The Hand-bos, a bulwark formed of oaken piles, was snapped like pack thread.
1865. Geikie, Scen. & Geol. Scot., iii. 57. To check the further ravages of the waves a stone bulwark was erected.
2. transf. and fig. A powerful defence or safeguard. Sometimes applied to persons.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 900/2. The citie and Ile of Rhodes, one of the principall bulworks of christendome.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 247. Fortescue, that notable Bulwarke of our Lawes.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. XIII. 357. To destroy their Fleete: which … are their Walls and Bulwarks.
1718. Pope, Iliad, VII. 258. He stood, the bulwark of the Grecian band.
1789. Belsham, Ess., I. xvi. 297. England … appeared … the great bulwark of the common liberties of Europe.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. V. I. 342. Melanchthon … perceived the necessity of preserving human learning as a bulwark to theology.
3. The raised woodwork running along the sides of a vessel above the level of the deck. (Not in Bailey, Ash or Johnson.) Usually pl.
1804. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron., II. 274. The guns on the quarter-deck tearing away the bulwark.
1825. H. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 60. Along the side a yellow streak extends Between his Bullwark and the varnish’d Bends.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxi. 112. Our ship had uncommonly high bulwarks and rail.
1866. Neale, Seq. & Hymns, 36. Dashed upon our labouring bulwarks that fierce wind Euroclydon.
