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Loophole vs Barbican - What's the difference?

loophole | barbican |

As nouns the difference between loophole and barbican

is that loophole is a method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect while barbican is a tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town.

As a verb loophole

is (military) to prepare a building for defense by preparing slits or holes through which to fire on attackers.

loophole

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect.
  • * 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist :
    • I left him no loophole of escape, and laid bare the whole villainy which by these lights became plain as day.
  • * 2002, Two Weeks Notice (movie):
    • You have a contract that says you will work until Island Towers is finalized, which I interpret as completion of construction, or I can stop you working elsewhere. And there's no loopholes , because you drafted it and you're the best.
  • A slit in a castle wall. Later: any similar window for shooting a weapon or letting in light.
  • * 1719 , Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe :
    • ... and having a fair loophole , as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.
  • * 1809 , Maria Edgeworth, The Absentee :
    • There was a loophole in this wall, to let the light in, just at the height of a person's head, who was sitting near the chimney.
  • * 1949 , George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four , page 25:
    • The sun had shifted round, and the myriad windows of the Ministry of Truth, with the light no longer shining on them, looked grim as the loophole s of a fortress.

    Verb

    (loophol)
  • (military) To prepare a building for defense by preparing slits or holes through which to fire on attackers
  • * {{quote-book, year=1896, author=Arthur Conan Doyle, title=The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The lower windows were barricaded, and the whole building loopholed for musketry fire. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=A. E. W. Mason, title=The Broken Road, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The doors were barricaded, the shutters closed upon the windows and loopholed , and provisions were brought in from the outhouses. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1915, author=W. H. L. Watson, title=Adventures of a Despatch Rider, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The Germans were loopholing it for defence. }} English words with consonant pseudo-digraphs

    barbican

    English

    Alternative forms

    * barbacan

    Noun

    (wikipedia barbican) (en noun)
  • A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town
  • A fortress at the end of a bridge.
  • An opening in the wall of a fortress through which the guns are levelled; a narrow loophole through which arrows and other missiles may be shot.
  • * 1922 James Joyce, Ulysses 11:
    • Two shafts of soft daylight fell across the flagged floor from the high barbacans .
  • A temporary wooden tower built for defensive purposes.

    • See also

    * bartisan

    References

    * Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language (1766) *