battlement
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of battlement
1275–1325; Middle English batelment < Middle French bataille battlement; see -ment
Explanation
A battlement is an extremely strong wall built to defend a city or castle from enemies while providing cover to defensive troops. The oldest known battlements were constructed in ancient Egypt. During the Middle Ages — and for thousands of years before that — battlements were one of the main defenses during war. They could take the form of separate walls surrounding a city, or be part of a building. In either case, they featured regular gaps or windows called crenels, through which defenders could fire weapons at advancing attackers. Battlement comes from the Old French bastille, "fortress."
Vocabulary lists containing battlement
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Howl's Moving Castle
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Trash
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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.
Ursa is pursuing a two-phase project to drill more than 100 wells altogether in Battlement Mesa from four pads.
From Washington Times • Oct. 6, 2018
The company also has worked to reduce the number of pads needed within Battlement Mesa to develop the minerals beneath it, tapping more of the underlying gas from pads surrounding the community.
From Washington Times • Oct. 6, 2018
What’s changed, Farr said, is the drilling Ursa Resources has begun in Battlement Mesa, an unincorporated residential development of several thousand residents.
From Washington Times • Oct. 6, 2018
Battlement Mesa, the company town that was to be the hub of the new industry, still exists, but not for oil-shale workers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Battlement, bat′l-ment, n. a wall or parapet on the top of a building with openings or embrasures, originally used only on fortifications: the towering roof of heaven,—adj.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
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.
