A portcullis is a strong gate, usually iron, that can be lowered over the entrance of a castle. It hangs in grooves and drops like a curtain of bars — often with pointed bottoms — to shut people and horses out. You raise it with chains or a winch; you drop it when the castle must close. It is a history-and-castles word: films, games, and school trips, not daily city talk. Though actually, a few old ones still work, and the picture of a portcullis still turns up on British coins and in the name of a room in the UK Parliament. There is a very rare verb, to portcullis, but almost nobody uses it.

城堡吊閘、吊柵門