bastille
noun
a fortress in Paris, used as a prison, built in the 14th century and destroyed July 14, 1789.
bastille
American
[ba-steel, ba s-tee-yuh]
/ bæˈstil, basˈti jə /
Also
bastile
noun
-
bastilles
plural
-
(initial capital letter) a fortress in Paris, used as a prison, built in the 14th century and destroyed July 14, 1789.
-
any prison or jail, especially one conducted in a tyrannical way.
-
a fortified tower, as of a castle; a small fortress; citadel.
Bastille
British
/ bastij, bæˈstiːl /
noun
Bastille
Cultural
Discover More
The anniversary of the attack, Bastille Day, is the most important national holiday in France.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
On Bastille Day the little bastille in the Caribbean fell.
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
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
During the examination, she came near being struck by a volley of bolts darted at her from the bastille of St. Laurence.
From The Executioner's Knife Or Joan of Arc by Eug?ne Sue
Still, though it wakes up when we get to the storming of the Bastille, economically but effectively rendered, and, later the Reign of Terror, in between it can turn into a murky, mopey slog.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
Tuesday is Bastille Day and in some cities they have decided to postpone some fireworks.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
There’s a day for everything — and July 14 is, of course, most well known internationally for being Bastille Day, commemorating France’s independence.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Temperatures were expected to remain high through France's Bastille Day national holiday on Tuesday, according to the Meteo-France weather service.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
I thought about Sara Crewe in A Little Princess, pretending she is a prisoner in the Bastille to make her work as a scullery maid more bearable.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
The bastilles are armed, and those of Montrouge and Aubervilliers are provisioned.
From Edmond Dantès by Edmund Flagg
They said they had resolved to attack the most important of the English bastilles on the Orleans side next morning—and there the spokesman stopped.
From Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc — Volume 1 by Mark Twain
True they had their bastilles upon the north side of the river to fall back upon, since the Maid's counsel of destruction had not been followed.
From A Heroine of France by Evelyn Everett-Green
Chains cannot bind that down; bastilles cannot shut it in; and every attempt to crush it is but an effort of tyranny both impotent and cruel.
From The Huguenot: (Volumes I-III) A Tale of the French Protestants. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
The very day after her arrival she would have liked to go and attack the English in their bastilles, within which they kept themselves shut up.
From A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3 by Robert Black
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.
