Gate (gt), n. [OE. et, eat, giat, gate, door, AS. geat, gat, gate,
door; akin to OS., D., & Icel. gat opening, hole, and perh. to E. gate
a way, gait, and get, v. Cf. Gate a way, 3d Get.] 1. A large door or
passageway in the wall of a city, of an inclosed field or place, or of
a grand edifice, etc.; also, the movable structure of timber, metal,
etc., by which the passage can be closed.
2. An opening for passage in any inclosing wall, fence, or barrier; or
the suspended framework which closes or opens a passage. Also,
figuratively, a means or way of entrance or of exit.
Knowest thou the way to Dover? Both stile and gate, horse way and
footpath.
Shak.
Opening a gate for a long war.
Knolles.
3. A door, valve, or other device, for stopping the passage of water
through a dam, lock, pipe, etc.
4. (Script.) The places which command the entrances or access; hence,
place of vantage; power; might.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Matt. xvi. 18.
5. In a lock tumbler, the opening for the stump of the bolt to pass
through or into.
6. (Founding) (a) The channel or opening through which metal is poured
into the mold; the ingate. (b) The waste piece of metal cast in the
opening; a sprue or sullage piece. [Written also geat and git.]
Gate chamber, a recess in the side wall of a canal lock, which receives
the opened gate. -- Gate channel. See Gate, 5. -- Gate hook, the
hook-formed piece of a gate hinge. -- Gate money, entrance money for
admission to an inclosure. -- Gate tender, one in charge of a gate, as
at a railroad crossing. -- Gate valva, a stop valve for a pipe, having
a sliding gate which affords a straight passageway when open. -- Gate
vein (Anat.), the portal vein. -- To break gates (Eng. Univ.), to enter
a college inclosure after the hour to which a student has been
restricted. -- To stand in the gate, or gates, to occupy places or
advantage, power, or defense.
Gate, v. t. 1. To supply with a gate.
2. (Eng. Univ.) To punish by requiring to be within the gates at an
earlier hour than usual.
Gate, n. [Icel. gata; akin to SW. gata street, lane, Dan. gade, Goth.
gatwˆ, G. gasse. Cf. Gate a door, Gait.] 1. A way; a path; a road; a
street (as in Highgate). [O. Eng. & Scot.]
I was going to be an honest man; but the devil has this very day
flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate.
Sir W. Scott.