stockade
Americannoun
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Fortification. a defensive barrier consisting of strong posts or timbers fixed upright in the ground.
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an enclosure or pen made with posts and stakes.
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U.S. Military. a prison for military personnel.
verb (used with object)
noun
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an enclosure or barrier of stakes and timbers
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a military prison or detention area
verb
Etymology
Origin of stockade
1605–15; < Middle French estocade, variant of estacade < Spanish estacada. See stake 1, -ade 1
Explanation
A stockade is an enclosed pen used to herd cattle and other livestock. Stockades can also house people, in the sense of a penal camp. In both cases, the treatment tends to be on the rough side. Stockades are also built as a means of protection or defense. Fun fact: Did you know that one of the most famous stockades in America was the original Wall Street in New Amsterdam — that is, the protective wall of wooden stakes dug into the ground that separated the northernmost part of the Dutch settlement from Native American territory? Or at least it did until the Dutch, in need of firewood, chopped it down.
Vocabulary lists containing stockade
Beowulf
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Miami-Dade Corrections says the decision was only temporary, and that the jail commonly known as the Stockade is once again empty now that omicron is fading.
From Washington Times • Feb. 12, 2022
Then one day while in the Presidio Stockade, quite out of the blue, a stranger came to see him.
From Salon • Jan. 30, 2020
Epstein was soon transferred to the lower-security Palm Beach County Stockade, records show.
From Washington Post • Jul. 19, 2019
His 13-month sentenced enabled him to get out of the Palm Beach County Stockade six days a week to work from his office, according to the New York Times.
From Reuters • Jul. 7, 2019
He said that he went out with the military on the morning of December 3rd, and was the first surgeon who entered the Eureka Stockade after the fight was over.
From The Book of the Bush Containing Many Truthful Sketches Of The Early Colonial Life Of Squatters, Whalers, Convicts, Diggers, And Others Who Left Their Native Land And Never Returned by Macfarlane, J.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
