pull up the drawbridge

present singular third person pulls up the drawbridge · participle present pulling up the drawbridge · participle past pulled up the drawbridge · past pulled up the drawbridge

1. To stop allowing people to join or enter; to follow a policy of isolationism.

   Near-synonym: pull up the ladder

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: pull up the ladder