circumvallation

American  

[ser-kuhm-va-lay-shuhn] / ˌsər kəm væˈleɪ ʃən /

noun

• circumvallations
  plural

1. the act or process of surrounding a position with a fortification, or circumvallating.

2. a fortification, especially one made of earth, surrounding an area for protection; rampart.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• circumvallations
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

circumvallation circumvallations

They then dropt on their hands and knees and crept close up to what we may call the circumvallation of the gunyahs; and the crouching white man surveyed intently the scene before him.

From Fern Vale (Volume 3) or the Queensland Squatter by Colin Munro

A wall of circumvallation was built around the city, which was now left to the operations of famine.

From Ancient States and Empires by John Lord

A double wall of circumvallation, surmounted with towers, was built around the city, and closed the access to it by the Douro, by which the besieged relied upon for provisions.

From Ancient States and Empires by John Lord

Philip, at the same time, assembled a large army at Tournai, and marched to Mons-la-Puelle, near Lille, where the Flemings, to the number of seventy thousand, were encamped within a circumvallation of cars and chariots.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 by Rossiter Johnson

It had been a desperate combat of mine and counter-mine even where the general circumvallation of the town was concerned, though the worst, of course, was to come when the citadel should be attacked.

From Malplaquet by Hilaire Belloc

Instead of this, with the exception of some two or three harmless sorties, they have been allowed slowly to inclose us in a net of circumvallations.

From Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris by Henry Labouchere

Its circumvallations haunted you until you came to the next station.

From Stories in Light and Shadow by Bret Harte

We have his works, but they are like the circumvallations of a Roman camp on the Scottish hillside.

From Dreamthorp A Book of Essays Written in the Country by Alexander Smith

Elsewhere the tomb, instead of developing as a tumulus or barrow, produced the effect of greatness by huge circumvallations of earth, and massive walls of stone.

From Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. by Standish O'Grady

The ancient Americans knew how to protect every height and every delta formed by the junction of two rivers with redoubts, walls, parapets, fosses, and circumvallations.

From Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples by N. D'Anvers