English Explanatory Dictionary

Bastille

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.
noun
  1. Chiefly in French contexts: a bastion (“projecting part of a rampart or other fortification”) or tower of a castle; also, a fortified tower or other building; or a small citadel or fortress.
  2. A jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners.
  3. Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”).
  4. The fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment.
verb
  1. To confine (someone or something) in, or as if in, a bastille (noun sense 2.1) or prison; to imprison.

Pronunciation

/bæˈstiːl/ /bɑː-/ /ˈbæstɪl/ /ˈbɑː-/ [bæˈstɪəɫ] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Bastille.wav /bæˈstil/ En-au-bastille.ogg

Word forms

Bastille the Bastille Bastile bastilles bastilling bastilled

Etymology

Borrowed from French Bastille, from bastille (“fortress”): see further at the English entry bastille. The building was known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, and was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Synonyms

workhouse bang up bastille clap up confine gaol incarcerate immure imprison jail lock up mew up put away roof send down

Related words

bastille Bastille Day bastion

Derived words

Bastille Day Steel bastle bastle house
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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