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palisade

[pal-uh-seyd]
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noun
  1. a fence of pales or stakes set firmly in the ground, as for enclosure or defense.
  2. any of a number of pales or stakes pointed at the top and set firmly in the ground in a close row with others to form a defense.
  3. Botany. palisade parenchyma.
  4. palisades, a line of cliffs.
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verb (used with object), pal·i·sad·ed, pal·i·sad·ing.
  1. to furnish or fortify with a palisade.
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Origin of palisade

1590–1600; < French palissade < Old Provençal palissada, equivalent to paliss(a) paling (derivative of pal stake, pale2) + -ada -ade1
Related formsun·pal·i·sad·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for palisade

Historical Examples

  • They shoot between the logs of the palisade down the narrow lane.

    The Leopard Woman

    Stewart Edward White

  • There is a gateway through this palisade where you can go in.

    Rollo in Paris

    Jacob Abbott

  • I doubled up on the top of the palisade and hung there, yelling with laughter.

  • I froze on to the nearest daku and ran to the palisade, shoving him in front of me.

  • The hunters were soon at the palisade door and admitted; they had no game with them.

    The Settlers in Canada

    Frederick Marryat

British Dictionary definitions for palisade

palisade

noun
  1. a strong fence made of stakes driven into the ground, esp for defence
  2. one of the stakes used in such a fence
  3. botany a layer of elongated mesophyll cells containing many chloroplasts, situated below the outer epidermis of a leaf blade
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verb
  1. (tr) to enclose with a palisade
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Word Origin

C17: via French, from Old Provençal palissada, ultimately from Latin pālus stake; see pale ², pole 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for palisade

n.

"a fence of stakes," c.1600, from Middle French palissade (15c.), from Provençal palissada, from palissa "a stake or paling," from Gallo-Romance *palicea, from Latin palus "stake" (see pale (n.)). Military sense is attested from 1690s. The Palisades, along the Hudson River opposite New York City, so called by 1823.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper