sb. Forms: see TURN v. and PICK sb.1, PIKE sb.1; also 5–7 Sc. -pik, 6 Sc. -pek, 7 Sc. -pecke, -pyck; 7–8 turn(e)-peg. [f. TURN- + PICK sb.1, PIKE sb.1]
I. 1. Hist. A spiked barrier fixed in or across a road or passage, as a defence against sudden attack, esp. of men on horseback.
It does not appear certain how this was originally constructed, or how it acted; later writers identify it with the CHEVAL DE FRISE (see quotations 1704–16), but the other senses suggest that in older use the axis was vertical.
c. 1420. Siege of Rouen, in Collect. Lond. Cit. (Camden), 17. He made a dyche of grete coste, Pyght with stakys that wolde perysce, With turnepykys, and with many an hers.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. 5716. Þan a staf tuk Wate of Curry, And set vndyr þe portculyce, Þat cum down it mycht on na wise. Syne þe crelis and colis wiþe all Apon þe turnpik [v.rr. turnepike, -pyk] let he fal. And ane þan blew a horne in hy.
1477. Paston Lett. III. 203. My lord hath do brokyn all the passages excep Newham bryge, weche is wached, and the turne pyke shette every nyght.
1543. Wallop, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., IX. 454. There was a horsemen of Mr. Bowlmers companey taken, which went over at Marguyson, notwithstanding the turnpike, being then there sett on with certen horsemen of Bullen, were constrayned to take the ryver, where as it is saied never any hath passed.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 88. At the Turne pike besyde Hammes where they turned with so fewe Archers, so many Frenchemen to flight.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron. (1807), III. 103. A large trench … pight full of sharpe stakes, with a great rampire fensed with bulworks, and turnepikes.
1642. Relat. Action bef. Cirencester, 4. Each end of the high street … was secured against Horse with strong slaght-boomes which our men call Turne-pikes.
1644. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. II. 739. They had no Drawbridge but only a Turnpyke.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Turn-Pikes in the Art of War, are Spars of Wood of 12 or 14 Foot long, and about 6 Inches diameter in a sexangular Form: They are bored with holes … six Inches one from another, but to go by turns from each side, the Pickets that are driven into the hole[s], are 6 or 5 Foot long, pointed with Iron.
1711. Milit. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4), Chevaux de Frise,… the same as Turnpikes,… one being the French, the other the English Name, yet both indifferently now used in England, and the French rather the most.
1716. Perry, St. Russia, 43. The Czar having disposed his Army behind a Line of Chevaux de Frize, or Turn-pikes shod with Iron,… maintain’d so regular and strong a fire, that [etc.].
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier, I. 108. Coming up to the Turn-pike, I found it defended by 200 Musqueteers.
† b. transf. and fig. in various applications. Obs.
a. 1616. Beaumont, Antiplatonic, v. Love stormes his lips, and takes the fortresse in, For all the bristled turn-pikes of his chin.
1641. G. H., Wit’s Recreat., X vj. He hath such subtile turnes and nookes, Such turne-pegs, mazes, tenter-hookes.
1661. Feltham, Resolves, II. xxix. (ed. 8), 241. It makes a man a Tur-pike, that will be sure to prick you, which side soever you come on.
1661. K. W., Conf. Charac. Covetous Usurer (1860), 74. That Fryday face of his, whose rowsey whiskers and brischy turn-pikes make him resemble some shaggy meteor, or some borish Turk.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., I. 205. Each of these legs were bestuck … with multitudes of small hairs, or (if we respect the proportion they bore to the bigness of the leg) turnpikes.
1679. V. Alsop, Melius Inquir., I. i. 77. He that … shall thrust other men upon the turn-pikes of sin, and force them to act against their light.
† 2. A horizontal cross of timber turning on a vertical pin, set up to exclude horse-traffic from a foot-way; a turnstile. Obs.
1547. in J. R. Boyle, Hedon (1875), App. 135. For makynge on hoppe to the tornepyke, iiij.d.
1600. W. Kemp, Nine Days’ Wonder, D j. The Cittizens [of Norwich] had caused all the turne-pikes to be taken vp … that I might not be hindred.
1626. B. Jonson, Staple of N., III. i. I moue vpon my axell, like a turne-pike.
1634–5. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 642. Painting the barrs and Turnepikes in the entrance to the New walke.
1755. Johnson, Turnpike,… a cross of two bars armed with pikes at the end, and turning on a pin, fixed to hinder horses from entering.
† 3. A barrier across a water-course or stream; a water-gate, allowing the water to flow, but obstructing cattle; also, a lock on a navigable stream. Also turnpike-lock (see 9). Obs.
1623–4. Act 21 Jas. I., c. 325 § 1. To open prepare or make all Weares and Lockes or Turnepickes fitt for the said Passage. Ibid. To make and erect any Wharfes Lockes or Turnepickes or Pennes for Water.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 233. Where the declivity of the Channel, and fall of water is so great, that few barges could live in the passage of them, there we have Turn-pikes.
1702. Act 1 Anne, St. II. c. 11 § 2. Altering the said Wharfs Sluces Wears Sasses Locks Turn-pikes or Pens for Water or Passages.
1751. Act 24 Geo. II., c. 8 § 2. Tenants or Occupiers of all Locks, Weirs, Bucks, Winches, Turnpikes, Dams, Flood-Gates.
4. A barrier (orig. of the nature of a turnpike in sense 2, later a gate or gates) placed across a road to stop passage till the toll is paid; a toll-gate. Cf. TURNSTILE. Now chiefly Hist.
a. 1678. [see b].
1695–6. Act 7 & 8 Will. III., c. 9 § 4. The Place for collecting the said Toll to be in some convenient Place upon the said Highway … by setting up a Turnpike or otherwise.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4125/4. Whoever … gives Notice to Mr. Iohn Baker, Keeper of the Turn-Pipe [sic] aforesaid,… shall have a Guinea Reward.
1723. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1725), I. 365. A poor Traveller that at every Ten Miles end is stop’d by a Turnpike.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 25 June. Considering the tax we pay for turnpikes, the roads of this country constitute a most intolerable grievance.
1805. Chron., 23 Feb., in Ann. Reg. (1808), 375/2. Close to Oxford-street turnpike.
1829. Chapters Phys. Sc., 58. The weighing-machine is formed of a combination of levers … and is commonly used at turnpikes in weighing waggons, to ascertain that they are not loaded beyond what is allowed by law to the breadth of their wheels.
1845. M’Culloch, Taxation, Introd. (1852), 33. Turnpikes being erected only on the principal roads, the old plan for keeping up cross or parish roads [by statute labour, or at the cost of the parish] was not affected by their institution.
1885. Act 48 & 49 Vict., c. 37 § 5. The provisions now in force respecting turnpikes and tolls [etc.] … shall continue in force until Parliament otherwise provides.
b. transf. and fig.
a. 1678. Marvell, Growth Popery, 11. It will suffer no man to pass without paying at their Turn-pikes.
1730. Fielding, Rape upon Rape, II. ii. 16. The Laws are Turnpikes, only made to stop People who walk on Foot.
1745. Season. Adv. Protest., 33. A Tax to the Priests, for suffering them to pass the Turnpike of Purgatory.
1763. Foote, Commissary, II. i. He capers through a whole region of turnpegs.
1807. Opie, in Lect. Paint., ii. (1848), 271. The possessors … had … been often denied the usual road to eminence:… they defrauded the turnpike, and conducted their silent march another way.
c. dial. A wire snare set by a poacher across a hare’s or rabbit’s run.
1879. Jefferies, Amateur Poacher, ii. 29. The blacksmith started the idea of putting up a ‘turnpike,’—i.e. a wire.
5. Elliptical for TURNPIKE ROAD; also fig.
1748. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit., II. 178. The Road is by this means so continually torn, that it is one of the worst Turnpikes round about London.
1756. Demi-Rep, 10. You may ride the turnpike to her heart.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 124. There is a Minister from Denmark at Paris…. We sent through this turnpike to demand a passport.
1802. Debates in U.S. Congress, 25 Feb. (1850), 759. As plain as a turnpike.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., i. [Raveloe] was nestled in a snug well-wooded hollow, quite an hour’s journey on horseback from any turnpike.
1875. W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 77. Here the turnpike winds along a terrace hewn from the hillside.
b. Short for turnpike trust (see 9) or the like.
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., I. i. He won’t sit long enough to give his Vote for a Turn-pike.
1773. Observ. State Poor, 105. The roads of our nation are its standing opprobrium, the complaint and the jest of foreigners. The few, which under the direction of turnpikes, are justly exempted from this general censure or ridicule, only serve to facilitate the conveyance of provision to the capital.
† 6. A turn-table on a railway. Obs.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 167, note. The carriage being turned a quarter round upon the Turnpike, or Turnrail.
7. U.S. A small cake used to raise bread: see quots. ? local.
1850. Susan Warner, Wide, Wide World, xiv. I am scalding this meal with it to make turnpikes.
1850. Knickerbocker Mag. (N. Y.), July, 83 (Thornton). Some little yellow cakes, called turnpikes, and used, I believe, for some purpose or other in baking bread.
II. 8. Sc. A staircase that winds round a central axis; a spiral or winding stair; later applied to other forms of staircase: cf. turnpike stair, staircase in 9.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. xvii. A palice … with mony royall towris,… Pinnakillis, fyellis, turnpekkis mony one, Gilt birneist torris,… Skarsment, reprise, corbell, and battellingis.
1516. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., V. 78. For the makin of ane turnpek in the palis of the Abbay Halyrudhous.
1546. Lyndesay, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., V. 560. Normond Leslie and his cumpanye met hym [Cdl. Beaton] in þe turnpyk þer off, and slew hym.
1552. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., X. 91. Item, foure lokkis put in the Ȝett, Ȝard Ȝett, and durris of the tway turnpykis of my lord governouris lugeing of the Kirk of Feild … iij li.
c. 1590. J. Stewart, Poems (S.T.S.), II. 55/93. Butt and ben he bends from bour to bour, Vp turnpyks, turats, And from tour to tour.
1600. Gowrie Conspir., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 343. The Earle of Gowrie and his seruants made them for another way vp a quyet turnpyke, which … was onlie then left open, as appeared for that purpose.
1643. in A. Maxwell, Hist. Old Dundee (1884), 213. [The Council] concludit that the turne-pyk upon the steeple be presently repaired.
1730. Mem. Capt. Creichton, in Swift’s Wks. (1869), 534/2. Steele suddenly opening the door, fired a blunderbuss down at the two dragoons as they were coming up the stairs; but the bullets, grazing against the side of the turnpike, only wounded and did not kill them.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxii. The turnkey, who … led me up a ‘turnpike’ (so the Scotch call a winding stair).
1899. Crockett, Black Douglas (1900), 106. He was upon the last step of the turnpike and at the entrance of the corridor.
III. 9. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 4), as turnpike act, bridge, -house, -keeper, -man, -people, -system, trust; in sense 8, as turnpike foot, head, stair, staircase; also turnpike cake: see sense 7; turnpike-free a., free from tolls for passage; turnpike gate, † (a) a gate or door at the foot of a turnpike stair (Sc.); † (b) = sense 1; (c) = sense 4; † turnpike-lock = sense 3; turnpike meeting, a meeting of a turnpike trust; turnpike sailor, a beggar in the guise of a distressed sailor. See also TURNPIKE ROAD.
1794. Donaldson, Agric. Carse of Gowrie, 32. Making another application to parliament, and in a short time a *turnpike act was procured, in which these, and other particular roads in the county, were included.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 29/1. The inefficiency of the system of maintenance by parish and statute labour was proved before the passing of the first Turnpike Act in 1653.
1903. Law Rep., 1 K. B. 407. A bicycle is not a carriage for the purposes of a turnpike Act.
1840. Act 3 & 4 Vict., c. 88 § 1. That no Toll shall be demanded or taken on any *Turnpike … Bridge for any Horse, or Police Van, Carriage or Cart,… in the Service of the Police.
1850. Susan Warner, Wide, Wide World, xiv. Cakes, child, cakes!—*turnpike cakes—what I raise the bread with.
1565. in Hay Fleming, Reform. in Scot. (1910), Append. M. 610. In the chalmer at the *turne pyk fuit.
1903. J. K. Jerome, Tea T. Talk (ed. Tauchn.), 112. The world’s highroads run *turnpike-free from pole to pole.
1513. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 526. To the … smyth for viij score of square hedit nalis to the *turnepyk yett of the nethir toure.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 88/1. A Turne pike…. Some terme it a Turnepike Gate.
1806. Chron., 19 Feb., in Ann. Reg. (1808), 371/2. A boy riding on a cart, drove against a turnpike-gate.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, iii. The horse stopped until the turnpike gate was opened.
1889. Gretton, Memory’s Harkback, 115. The wheelers … knocked against the turnpike-gate-post in passing through.
1623. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 151/1. Infra lie turnpyke ejusdem cameram lie *turnpyke-heid, occidentalem … et mediam cameram.
1774. Nicholson, in Phil. Trans., LXIV. 351. These appearances continued till I reached the *turnpike-house.
1806. Chron., 15 May, in Ann. Reg. (1808), 405/1. The toll-table, against the turnpike house, at Whalley.
1863. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., xxii. The Turnpike-house was all overgrown with ivy; and the Turnpike-keeper, unable to get a living out of the tolls, plied the trade of a cobbler.
1738. Gentl. Mag., May, 247/2. From the Respect he was treated with by the *Turnpike-keeper, I perceived … that he was … some Person of Distinction.
1771. Act 11 Geo. III., c. 45 § 8. Making *Turnpike Locks on the Sides of the present Locks.
1769. Earl March, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), II. 366. I wrote you a note with a pencil upon the road, which a *turnpike-man promised to send to you.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 119. In a trice the turnpike-men Their gates wide open threw.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, xxxii. He would rather have a row with three turnpike-men than presume to speak to a gentleman.
1764. Foote, Mayor of G., I. i. After twenty years attendance at *turnpike-meetings.
1858. Dickens, Holly Tree Inn, i. Even *turnpike people have children.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 415/2. I became a *turnpike sailor,… and went out as one of the Shallow Brigade.
1884. Clark Russell, in Longm. Mag., III. 563. The roadway was filled with a crowd of grimy fellows, turnpike sailors, loafing scarecrows.
1730. Mem. Capt. Creichton, in Swift’s Wks. (1869), 534/1. The dragoons … went up a pair of *turnpike stairs.
1779. Arnot, Hist. Edin., 246, note. A turnpike stair is the term used … over all Scotland, to denote a stair, of which the steps are built in a spiral form, like a screen winding round the same axis.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., II. 309. A small turnpike-stair, built in the wall.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxvi. A half-circular turret,… bartizan’d on the top, served as a case for a narrow turnpike-stair.
1888. Stevenson, Black Arrow, IV. iv. The authors … had clattered down a turnpike stair and decamped.
1800. W. F. Baylay, Northern Tour, 267 (MS.). A beautiful *turnpike staircase here … the roof of it winding like a snail cap.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., April, 158. The defective principles, adopted when the *turnpike system was first introduced, are completely avoided.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 28 Oct. The last of the turnpike system…. The turnpike gates, which will enjoy the honour of thus being last in the field, belong to that portion of the Shrewsbury and Holyhead-road which traverses the island of Anglesea, the trust for which was continued by a special Act of Parliament until November 1, 1895.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 429/1. *Turnpike trusts. Turnpike-roads are … highways placed … under the management of trustees or commissioners.
Hence Turnpike v., trans. to erect turnpikes on (a road); to make into a turnpike road; Turnpiker, one who frequents the turnpike or turnpike road; hence (a) a foot-traveller; (b) = turnpike sailor (see 9 above).
1806. Webster, *Turnpike,… to form or erect a turnpike.
1825. Amer. St. Papers, Post-office (1834), 137. The road from Elkton to Staunton has been turnpiked.
1903. H. T. Crofton, Old Moss Side, 6. The lane was but little altered even after Acts are passed in 1749 and 1793 for turnpiking and improving it.
1808. The Sentinel (PA), 6 July, 3/2. On Sunday eight of the *turnpikers were committed to jail as harbourers of the villain.
1812. Boston Gaz., 27 Aug. (Thornton). The heroes, who were to have mounted the heights of Abram, are yet in the garb of turnpikers, unaccoutred and undisciplined.
1896. Clark Russell, What Cheer! xi. 189. When it came to lee shores and frightful cliffs resounding the thunder of the tempest of the Atlantic … the turnpikers bent their backs and pulled with a will.
