Bulwark

Noun

 * 1) A defensive wall or rampart.
 * 2) A defense or safeguard.
 * 3) A breakwater.
 * 4)  The planking or plating along the sides of a nautical vessel above her gunwale that reduces the likelihood of seas washing over the gunwales and people being washed overboard.

Verb

 * 1)  To fortify something with a wall or rampart.
 * 2)  To provide protection of defense for something.

Adjectives for Bulwark
sturdy; mighty; everlasting; broken; seaward; riddled; splintered; heaven-sustaining; granite; eternal; flimsy; invulnerable.

Thesaurus
fender, fieldwork, finger guard, flying buttress, foot guard, fort, fortalice, fortification, fortress, fuse, gate, glacis, goggles, governor, gravity dam, groin, guard, guardrail, hand guard, handrail, hanging buttress, hard hat, helmet, hydraulic-fill dam, insulation, interlock, iron curtain, jam, jetty, jutty, knee guard, knuckle guard, laminated glass, leaping weir, levee, life preserver, lifeline, lightning conductor, lightning rod, logjam, loophole, lunette, machicolation, mantelet, mask, merlon, milldam, moat, mole, mound, mudguard, nose guard, outwork, pad, padding, palisade, palladium, parados, parapet, patent, pier, pier buttress, pilot, portcullis, postern gate, preventive, prophylactic, protect, protective clothing, protective umbrella, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, retaining wall, roadblock, rock-fill dam, safeguard, safety, safety glass, safety plug, safety rail, safety shoes, safety switch, safety valve, sally port, scarp, sconce, screen, seat belt, seawall, secure, shelter, shield, shin guard, shoulder, shutter dam, stockade, stone wall, stronghold, sun helmet, tenaille, umbrella, vallation, vallum, wall, weir, wicket dam, windscreen, windshield, work, abatis, abutment, advanced work, aegis, arc-boutant, arch dam, arm guard, backstop, balistraria, bamboo curtain, bank, banquette, bar, barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barrage, barricade, barrier, bartizan, bastion, battlement, beam, bear-trap dam, beaver dam, boom, breakwater, breastwork, brick wall, buffer, bulkhead, bumper, buttress, buttress pier, buttressing, casemate, cheval-de-frise, circumvallation, citadel, cofferdam, contraceptive, contravallation, copyright, counterscarp, cover, crash helmet, curtain, cushion, dam, dashboard, defend, defense, demibastion, dike, ditch, dodger, drawbridge, earthwork, embankment, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment, face mask, fence, fend,

Etymology
, cognate with German Bollwerk:, Danish bolværk:, Dutch bolwerk:. The first part is akin to bole:. Cognates include boulevard: (from French boulevard:, from Dutch), Spanish baluarte: and Italian baluardo:.