bastion

[bas-chuhn, -tee-uhn]

noun

1. Fortification.,  a projecting portion of a rampart or fortification that forms an irregular pentagon attached at the base to the main work.

2. a fortified place.

   Synonyms: citadel, stronghold, bulwark, fort, fortress

3. anything seen as preserving or protecting some quality, condition, etc..

   a bastion of solitude; a bastion of democracy.

bastion

/ ˈbæstɪən /

noun

1. a projecting work in a fortification designed to permit fire to the flanks along the face of the wall

2. any fortified place

3. a thing or person regarded as upholding or defending an attitude, principle, etc

   the last bastion of opposition

Other Word Forms

• bastionary adjective
• bastioned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bastion¹

1590–1600; < Middle French < Italian bastione, equivalent to Upper Italian bastí ( a ) bastion, originally, fortified, built (cognate with Italian bastita, past participle of bastire to build < Germanic; baste ¹ ) + -one augmentative suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of bastion¹

C16: from French, from earlier bastillon bastion, from bastille _Bastille

Example Sentences

Within righteous anger flooding the comments on these artists’ social media pages are more than a few folks who point out that the United States is no bastion of justice and ethics these days, either.

Read more on Salon

Perales has got his uniform and boots at hand, ready to defend his "bastion" – the Caracas neighbourhood where he lives.

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Conservatives hated the video so much that X users recirculated it in March with language about the “ruins of bastions of masculinity” and cast blame on the women for everything bad that men have experienced.

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I bring this up to reiterate the central point that these protests are happening clear across “middle America,” not just in bastions of liberal preciousness and “political correctness.”

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And to build up new trees next to older ones, so that wildlife can flow "from these ancient bastions into the new woods and hedges and individual trees that we're planting".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• bulwark 
• citadel 
• fortress 
• mainstay 
• stronghold