Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Gate?

\Gate\ (g[=a]t), n. [OE. [yogh]et, [yogh]eat, giat, gate, door, AS. geat, gat, gate, door; akin to OS., D., & Icel. gat opening, hole, and perh. to E. gate a way, gait, and get, v. Cf. {Gate} a way, 3d {Get}.] 1. A large door or passageway in the wall of a city, of an inclosed field or place, or of a grand edifice, etc.; also, the movable structure of timber, metal, etc., by which the passage can be closed. 2. An opening for passage in any inclosing wall, fence, or barrier; or the suspended framework which closes or opens a passage. Also, figuratively, a means or way of entrance or of exit. Knowest thou the way to Dover? Both stile and gate, horse way and footpath. --Shak. Opening a gate for a long war. --Knolles. 3. A door, valve, or other device, for stopping the passage of water through a dam, lock, pipe, etc. 4. (Script.) The places which command the entrances or access; hence, place of vantage; power; might. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. --Matt. xvi. 18. 5. In a lock tumbler, the opening for the stump of the bolt to pass through or into. 6. (Founding) (a) The channel or opening through which metal is poured into the mold; the ingate. (b) The waste piece of metal cast in the opening; a sprue or sullage piece. [Written also {geat} and {git}.] {Gate chamber}, a recess in the side wall of a canal lock, which receives the opened gate. {Gate channel}. See {Gate}, 5. {Gate hook}, the hook-formed piece of a gate hinge. {Gate money}, entrance money for admission to an inclosure. {Gate tender}, one in charge of a gate, as at a railroad crossing. {Gate valva}, a stop valve for a pipe, having a sliding gate which affords a straight passageway when open. {Gate vein} (Anat.), the portal vein. {To break gates} (Eng. Univ.), to enter a college inclosure after the hour to which a student has been restricted. {To stand in the} {gate, or gates}, to occupy places or advantage, power, or defense.
\Gate\, v. t. 1. To supply with a gate. 2. (Eng. Univ.) To punish by requiring to be within the gates at an earlier hour than usual.
\Gate\, n. [Icel. gata; akin to SW. gata street, lane, Dan. gade, Goth. gatw["o], G. gasse. Cf. {Gate} a door, {Gait}.] 1. A way; a path; a road; a street (as in Highgate). [O. Eng. & Scot.] I was going to be an honest man; but the devil has this very day flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate. --Sir W. Scott. 2. Manner; gait. [O. Eng. & Scot.]