From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Drawbridge \Draw"bridge'\, noun A bridge of which either the whole or a part is made to be raised up, let down, or drawn or turned aside, to admit or hinder communication at pleasure, as before the gate of a town or castle, or over a navigable river or canal.
Note: The movable portion, or draw, is called, specifically, a bascule, balance, or lifting bridge, a turning, swivel, or swing bridge, or a rolling bridge, according as it turns on a hinge vertically, or on a pivot horizontally, or is pushed on rollers.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a bridge that can be raised to block passage or to allow boats or ships to pass beneath it [syn: {lift bridge}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
81 Moby Thesaurus words for "drawbridge": Bifrost, abatis, advanced work, balistraria, bank, banquette, barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barricade, barrier, bartizan, bascule bridge, bastion, bateau bridge, battlement, breastwork, bridge, bulwark, cantilever bridge, casemate, catwalk, cheval-de-frise, circumvallation, contravallation, counterscarp, curtain, demibastion, dike, earthwork, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment, fence, fieldwork, floating bridge, flyover, footbridge, fortalice, fortification, gangboard, gangplank, gangway, glacis, lift bridge, loophole, lunette, machicolation, mantelet, merlon, mound, outwork, overbridge, overcrossing, overpass, palisade, parados, parapet, pontoon bridge, portcullis, postern gate, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, rope bridge, sally port, scarp, sconce, span, stepping-stone, stepstone, stockade, suspension bridge, swing bridge, tenaille, toll bridge, vallation, vallum, viaduct, work
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