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Webster 1913 Edition

Bridge

Bridge

(brĭj)
,
Noun.
[OE.
brig
,
brigge
,
brug
,
brugge
, AS.
brycg
,
bricg
; akin to Fries.
bregge
, D.
brug
, OHG.
brucca
, G.
brücke
, Icel.
bryggja
pier, bridge, Sw.
brygga
, Dan.
brygge
, and prob. Icel.
brū
bridge, Sw. & Dan.
bro
bridge, pavement, and possibly to E.
brow
.]
1.
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.
2.
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.
3.
(Mus.)
The small arch or bar at right angles to the strings of a violin, guitar, etc., serving of raise them and transmit their vibrations to the body of the instrument.
4.
(Elec.)
A device to measure the resistance of a wire or other conductor forming part of an electric circuit.
5.
A low wall or vertical partition in the fire chamber of a furnace, for deflecting flame, etc.; – usually called a
bridge wall
.
Aqueduct bridge
.
See
Aqueduct
.
–
Asses’ bridge
,
Bascule bridge
,
Bateau bridge
.
See under
Ass
,
Bascule
,
Bateau
.
–
Bridge of a steamer
(Naut.)
,
a narrow platform across the deck, above the rail, for the convenience of the officer in charge of the ship; in paddlewheel vessels it connects the paddle boxes.
–
Bridge of the nose
,
the upper, bony part of the nose.
–
Cantalever bridge
.
See under
Cantalever
.
–
Draw bridge
.
See
Drawbridge
.
–
Flying bridge
,
a temporary bridge suspended or floating, as for the passage of armies; also, a floating structure connected by a cable with an anchor or pier up stream, and made to pass from bank to bank by the action of the current or other means.
–
Girder bridge
or
Truss bridge
,
a bridge formed by girders, or by trusses resting upon abutments or piers.
–
Lattice bridge
,
a bridge formed by lattice girders.
–
Pontoon bridge
,
Ponton bridge
.
See under
Pontoon
.
–
Skew bridge
,
a bridge built obliquely from bank to bank, as sometimes required in railway engineering.
–
Suspension bridge
.
See under
Suspension
.
–
Trestle bridge
,
a bridge formed of a series of short, simple girders resting on trestles.
–
Tubular bridge
,
a bridge in the form of a hollow trunk or rectangular tube, with cellular walls made of iron plates riveted together, as the Britannia bridge over the Menai Strait, and the Victoria bridge at Montreal.
–
Wheatstone's bridge
(Elec.)
,
a device for the measurement of resistances, so called because the balance between the resistances to be measured is indicated by the absence of a current in a certain wire forming a bridge or connection between two points of the apparatus; – invented by Sir Charles
Wheatstone
.

Bridge

(brĭj)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Bridged
(brĭjd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Bridging
.]
1.
To build a bridge or bridges on or over;
as, to
bridge
a river
.
Their simple engineering
bridged
with felled trees the streams which could not be forded.
Palfrey.
2.
To open or make a passage, as by a bridge.
Xerxes . . . over Hellespont
Bridging
his way, Europe with Asia joined.
Milton.
3.
To find a way of getting over, as a difficulty; – generally with over.

Webster 1828 Edition

Bridge

BRIDGE

,
Noun.
1.
Any structure of wood, stone, brick, or iron, raised over a river, pond, or lake, for the passage of men and other animals. Among rude nations, bridges are sometimes formed of other materials; and sometimes they are formed of boats, or logs of wood lying on the water, fastened together, covered with planks, and called floating bridges. A bridge over a marsh is made of logs or other materials laid upon the surface of the earth.
Pendent or hanging bridges are not supported by posts, but by the peculiar structure of the frame, resting only on the abutments.
A draw bridge is one which is made with hinges, and may be raised or opened. Such bridges are constructed in fortifications, to hinder the passage of a ditch or moat; and over rivers, that the passage of vessels need not be interrupted.
A flying bridge is made of pontoons, light boats, hollow beams, empty casks or the like. They are made, as occasion requires, for the passage of armies.
A flying bridge is also constructed in such a manner as to move from one side of a river to the other, being made fast in the middle of the river by a cable and an anchor.
1.
The upper part of the nose.
2.
The part of a stringed instrument of music, over which the strings are stretched, and by which they are raised.
3.
In gunnery, the two pieces of timber which go between the two transoms of a gun-carriage.

BRIDGE

,
Verb.
T.
To build a bridge or bridges over; as, to bridge a river.
1.
To erect bridges on; to make a passage by a bridge or bridges.

Definition 2024

Bridge

Bridge

See also: bridge and bridgé

English

Proper noun

Bridge

  1. A surname​.

German

Noun

Bridge n ‎(genitive Bridge, no plural)

  1. bridge (card game)

Declension

bridge

bridge

See also: Bridge and bridgé

English

A bridge (sense 1)

Alternative forms

Noun

A bridge (sense 1)
The bridge of a violin

bridge ‎(plural bridges)

  1. A construction or natural feature that spans a divide.
    The rope bridge crosses the river.‎
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
      Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.
    • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
      Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
    1. (anatomy) The upper bony ridge of the human nose.
      Rugby players often break the bridge of their noses.‎
    2. (dentistry) A prosthesis replacing one or several adjacent teeth.
      The dentist pulled out the decayed tooth and put in a bridge.‎
    3. (bowling) The gap between the holes on a bowling ball
  2. An arch or superstructure.
    1. (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.‎
    2. (music) The piece, on string instruments, that supports the strings from the sounding board.
    3. (billiards, snooker, pool) A particular form of one hand placed on the table to support the cue when making a shot in cue sports.
    4. (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.
    5. Anything supported at the ends and serving 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.
    6. (wrestling) A defensive position in which the wrestler is supported by his feet and head, belly-up, in order to prevent touch-down of the shoulders and eventually to dislodge an opponent who has established a position on top.
  3. A connection, real or abstract.
    1. (medicine) A rudimentary procedure before definite solution
      ECMO is used as a bridge to surgery to stabilize the patient.‎
    2. (computing) A device which connects two or more computer buses, typically in a transparent manner.
      This chip is the bridge between the front-side bus and the I/O bus.‎
    3. (communication) A system which connects two or more local area networks at layer 2.
      The LAN bridge uses a spanning tree algorithm.‎
    4. (chemistry) An intramolecular valence bond, atom or chain of atoms that connects two different parts of a molecule; the atoms so connected being bridgeheads.
    5. (electronics) An unintended solder connection between two or more components or pins.
    6. (music) A song contained within another song, often demarcated by meter, key, or melody.
      The lyrics in the song's bridge inverted its meaning.‎
    7. (graph theory) An edge which, if removed, changes a connected graph to one that is not connected.
    8. (poetry) A point in a line where a break in a word unit cannot occur.
    9. (diplomacy) A statement, such as an offer, that signals a possibility of accord.
    10. A day falling between two public holidays and consequently designated as an additional holiday.
  4. (electronics) Any of several electrical devices that measure characteristics such as impedance and inductance by balancing different parts of a circuit
  5. A low wall or vertical partition in the fire chamber of a furnace, for deflecting flame, etc.; a bridge wall.
  6. (cycling) The situation where a lone rider or small group of riders closes the space between them and the rider or group in front.
  7. A solid crust of undissolved salt in a water softener.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

bridge ‎(third-person singular simple present bridges, present participle bridging, simple past and past participle bridged)

  1. To be or make a bridge over something.
    With enough cable, we can bridge this gorge.
  2. To span as if with a bridge.
    • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 28:
      The brooding, black-clad singer bridged a stark divide that emerged in the recording industry in the 1950s, as post-Elvis pop singers diverged into two camps and audiences aligned themselves with either the sideburned rebels of rock 'n' roll or the cowboy-hatted twangsters of country music.
    The two groups were able to bridge their differences.
  3. (music) To transition from one piece or section of music to another without stopping.
    We need to bridge that jam into "The Eleven".
  4. (computing, communication) To connect two or more computer buses, networks etc. with a bridge.
  5. (wrestling) To go to the bridge position.
Translations

Etymology 2

From the earlier form (name of an older card game) biritch, probably from Russian бири́ч ‎(biríč) (per the OED), or else from Turkish bir-üç, "one-three".[1][2]

Noun

bridge ‎(uncountable)

  1. (card games) A card game played with four players playing as two teams of two players each.
    Bidding is an essential element of the game of bridge.
Translations

References

  1. ↑ "bridge." *OED 2nd edition. 1989. (online)
  2. ↑ "bridge." Online Etymology Dictionary. 2008.

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology

From English bridge.

Noun

bridge n ‎(uncountable)

  1. bridge (card game)

Derived terms

Finnish

Etymology

From English

Noun

bridge

  1. (card games) bridge

Declension

Inflection of bridge (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
nominative bridge bridget
genitive bridgen bridgejen
partitive bridgeä bridgejä
illative bridgeen bridgeihin
singular plural
nominative bridge bridget
accusative nom. bridge bridget
gen. bridgen
genitive bridgen bridgejen
bridgeinrare
partitive bridgeä bridgejä
inessive bridgessä bridgeissä
elative bridgestä bridgeistä
illative bridgeen bridgeihin
adessive bridgellä bridgeillä
ablative bridgeltä bridgeiltä
allative bridgelle bridgeille
essive bridgenä bridgeinä
translative bridgeksi bridgeiksi
instructive — bridgein
abessive bridgettä bridgeittä
comitative — bridgeineen

French

Etymology

From English bridge.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bʁidʒ/

Noun

bridge m ‎(uncountable)

  1. (card games) bridge

Italian

Etymology

Borrowing from English bridge.

Noun

bridge m ‎(invariable)

  1. (card games) bridge (card game)

Related terms

Portuguese

Noun

bridge m (uncountable)

  1. (card games) bridge

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowing from English bridge.

Noun

bridge m ‎(uncountable)

  1. (card games) bridge (card game)

Swedish

Etymology

From English.

Noun

bridge c

  1. (card games) bridge (card game)

Declension

Related terms

  • bridgekväll
  • bridgespelare
  • bridgetävling

Etymology

From Middle English brigge, from Old English brycġ ‎(“bridge”), from Proto-Germanic *brugjō, *brugjǭ ‎(“bridge”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrēw- ‎(“wooden flooring, decking, bridge”).

Cognate with Scots brig, brigg, breeg ‎(“bridge”), Saterland Frisian Brääch ‎(“bridge”), West Frisian brêge ‎(“bridge”), Dutch brug ‎(“bridge”), German Brücke ‎(“bridge”), Danish bro ‎(“bridge”) and brygge ‎(“wharf”), Icelandic brú ‎(“bridge”) and brygga ‎(“pier”), Gaulish bríva ‎(“bridge”), Serbo-Croatian brv ‎(“bridge, crossbar”), Old Church Slavonic бръвъно ‎(brŭvŭno, “beam”) and Russian бревно́ ‎(brevnó, “log”).

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).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bɹɪd͡ʒ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪdʒ

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