(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.
The anniversary of the attack, Bastille Day, is the most important national holiday in France.
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On Bastille Day the little bastille in the Caribbean fell.
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
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
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
The escort of the convoy is not strong enough to pass without danger under the bastille of St. Loup, which commands the only available wagon road.
From The Executioner's Knife Or Joan of Arc by Sue, Eug?ne
Instead of capping raucous Bastille Day celebrations in France with a trip to the World Cup final, Deschamps and his squad will travel to Miami to play in the third-place game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Held each year on 14 July, the national holiday marks the storming of the Bastille fortress in 1789, a key event from the French Revolution.
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
This is the last Bastille Day parade of Macron’s presidency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The prison had been built in 1805—in Napoleon’s day— and was even styled after the Bastille.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
The chiefs of the besieged resolved to begin on the morrow a combined attack upon the English bastilles which surrounded the palace; but Joan was not in their counsels.
From A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3 by Black, Robert
Candide is the epitome of an epoch in which there were bastilles, a stag-park, and an absolute king.
From Balzac by Lawton, Frederick
It filled the bastilles of God, the convents and monasteries of pre-mediæval days.
From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Saltus, Edgar
Before she reached the field the day had been lost and won, the English were in full retreat, and the battle now lay around the bastilles of Saint Loup.
From Joan of Arc by Gower, Ronald Sutherland
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 Black, Robert
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.
