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bascule

[ bas-kyool ]

noun

, Civil Engineering.
  1. a device operating like a balance or seesaw, especially an arrangement of a movable bridge basculebridge by which the rising floor or section is counterbalanced by a weight.


bascule

/ ˈbæskjuːl /

noun

  1. Also calledbalance bridgecounterpoise bridge a bridge with a movable section hinged about a horizontal axis and counterbalanced by a weight Compare drawbridge
  2. a movable roadway forming part of such a bridge

    Tower Bridge has two bascules

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of bascule1

First recorded in 1670–80; from French: name for a number of seesawlike mechanical devices, Middle French bacule, noun derivative of baculer “to strike on the buttocks” (probably originally, “to land on one's buttocks”), equivalent to bas “down” + -culer, verbal derivative of cul “rump, buttocks”; -s- by false analysis as bas(se) adjective + cule taken as a feminine noun; base 2, culet
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Word History and Origins

Origin of bascule1

C17: from French: seesaw, from bas low + cul rump; see base ², culet
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Example Sentences

Each bascule consists of two main girders with cross girders and stringers.

At the opening span of the Tower bridge (fig. 13) there are four main girders in each bascule.

We shall see the poor devil get out of the carriage, and being fastened on to the bascule, and pulled into the lunette.

The cost has been set down at 65,000, or about one-thirtieth that of a suspension bridge, and one-third that of a bascule bridge.

The movable span is of the single leaf bascule type operated by a windlass.

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