Barricade

How to spell barricade

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce barricade

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does barricade mean?

1. nounAn improvised barrier built across a road or entrance to block passage or hold off attackers.
2. verbTo block or defend a place with an improvised barrier.

Barricade in a sentence

• noun

  Protesters built a barricade across the main avenue.

• verb

  The family tried to barricade the door against the rising floodwater.

• noun

  Police set up a steel barricade outside the embassy.

• verb

  Workers had to barricade the entrance while the repairs were underway.

Where does barricade come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Spanish barrica, meaning 'barrel', and reached English through the French barricade in the late 1500s. The connection to barrels is no accident: the earliest barricades were makeshift defences thrown up in the street from casks and barrels packed with earth and stones. A famous early use describes the Day of the Barricades in Paris in 1588, when citizens blocked the streets with exactly such barrels. The same Spanish root barrica is a relative of the English word 'barrel', which is why the double r survives in the spelling. Over time the meaning broadened from a barrel-built obstacle to any improvised barrier put up to block a road or hold off attackers.

How the word is built

• barric- (from Spanish barrica, a barrel)
• -ade (noun-forming suffix)