bastille

American  

[ba-steel, bas-tee-y^uh] / 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.

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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

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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

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

It follows, then, that we must begin with the bastille St. John, and that will give the English time to—" Joan turned and said: "Give yourselves no uneasiness about the bastille St. John.

From Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc — Volume 1 by Twain, Mark

Related Words

• apprehend
• commit
• detain
• hold
• incarcerate
• jail
• lock up
• remand