pull up the drawbridge

English

Verb

pull up the drawbridge (third-person singular simple present pulls up the drawbridge, present participle pulling up the drawbridge, simple past and past participle pulled up the drawbridge)

1. To stop allowing people to join or enter; to follow a policy of isolationism.
   • 2007, Toby Shelley, Exploited: Migrant Labour in the New Global Economy, page 121:

     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.