bascule

[ bas-kyool ]
/ ˈbæs kyul /

noun Civil Engineering.

a device operating like a balance or seesaw, especially an arrangement of a movable bridge (bascule bridge) by which the rising floor or section is counterbalanced by a weight.

Origin of bascule

1670–80; French: name for a number of seesawlike mechanical devices, Middle French bacule, noun derivative of baculer to strike on the buttocks (probably orig., to land on one's buttocks), equivalent to bas down (see base2) + -culer, verbal derivative of cul rump, buttocks (see culet); -s- by false analysis as bas(se) adj. + cule taken as a feminine noun

Words nearby bascule

basal-cell nevus syndrome, basalt, basaltware, basanite, bascinet, bascule, base, base box, base bullion, base camp, base community

Example sentences from the Web for bascule

  • 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 Romance of Modern Mechanism |Archibald Williams

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

    Fantmas |Pierre Souvestre

  • Bascule, bas′kūl, n. an apparatus of the lever kind, in which one end is raised while the other is depressed.

    Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) |Various

  • The assistants seized the condemned man, and pushed him on to the bascule.

    Fantmas |Pierre Souvestre

British Dictionary definitions for bascule

bascule
/ (ˈbæskjuːl) /

noun

Also called: balance bridge, counterpoise bridge a bridge with a movable section hinged about a horizontal axis and counterbalanced by a weight Compare drawbridge
a movable roadway forming part of such a bridge Tower Bridge has two bascules

Word Origin for bascule

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