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bastille

American  
[ba-steel, bas-tee-yuh] / bæˈstil, basˈti yə /
Also bastile

noun

plural

bastilles

  1. (initial capital letter) a fortress in Paris, used as a prison, built in the 14th century and destroyed July 14, 1789.

  2. any prison or jail, especially one conducted in a tyrannical way.

  3. a fortified tower, as of a castle; a small fortress; citadel.

Bastille British  
/ bastij, bæˈstiːl /

noun

  1. a fortress in Paris, built in the 14th century: a prison until its destruction in 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Bastille Cultural  

  1. A prison in Paris where many political and other offenders were held and tortured until the time of the French Revolution. It was attacked by workers on July 14, 1789, during the revolution; the prisoners were released, and the building was later demolished.

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The anniversary of the attack, Bastille Day, is the most important national holiday in France.

Etymology

Origin of bastille

1350–1400; Middle English bastile < Middle French, probably alteration of bastide bastide, with -ile (< Medieval Latin, Latin -īle noun suffix of place) replacing -ide; replacing Middle English bastel < Old French basstel, with -el similarly replacing -ide

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.

Another is an American who has built a rambling bastille of words in which meanings are thrown into dungeons, to be reached only through endless labyrinths of painstaking prose.

From Time Magazine Archive

He declared that France "must not become a prisoner in the great bastille over which would float the Anglo-Saxon flags."

From Time Magazine Archive

But when it came, Youlou's exit had all the revolutionary trimmings, including a storming of the local bastille and a mob outside the palace howling for bread.

From Time Magazine Archive

On Bastille Day the little bastille in the Caribbean fell.

From Time Magazine Archive

Not far from the bastille of St. John-le-Blanc rose the Augustinian Convent, composed of massive buildings that were strongly fortified.

From The Executioner's Knife Or Joan of Arc by Sue, Eug?ne

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.