gates

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of gate.

   Workers opened the canal gates to release the rising water.

   Several gates along the medieval wall have crumbled over the centuries.

   Note

   A regular plural that serves every meaning of the noun. It covers the barriers across a field or canal, the openings in a city wall, and the numbered boarding points of an air terminal. It can also count money: a club's gates are its ticket takings across events. The same spelling is the present-tense verb, as in she gates the yard. An article, a number or a possessive in front marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of gate.

   The newspaper gates its best reporting behind a paid subscription.

   The streaming service gates new episodes behind its paid plan for a week before releasing them free.

   Note

   The form that follows he, she, it or a singular subject, and it always needs something after it, because every meaning of the verb takes an object. A parent gates a teenager for breaking curfew, and a site gates its archive behind a login. In biology, a signal that gates an ion channel opens it rather than shutting it. That reverses the everyday picture of a closed gate.

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