Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
pull up the drawbridge en · VERB
Meanings
-
To stop allowing people to join or enter; to follow a policy of isolationism.
Near-synonym: pull up the ladder
The impact of migration on the economy and on social provision is the key area of contest between those who support more or less unfettered movement of labour and those who want to pull up the drawbridge.
2007, Toby Shelley, Exploited: Migrant Labour in the New Global Economy, page 121:
Forms
Synonyms
pull up the ladder