palisade

American  

[pal-uh-sayd] / ˌpæl əˈseɪd /

noun

• palisades
  plural

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)

palisaded, palisading

1. to furnish or fortify with a palisade.

palisade British  

/ ˌpælɪˈseɪd /

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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unpalisaded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• palisades
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of palisade

1590–1600; < French palissade < Old Provençal palissada, equivalent to paliss ( a ) paling (derivative of pal stake, pale ² ) + -ada -ade ¹

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Explanation

A palisade is a heavy-duty fence that's strong enough to keep out intruders, like one you might see around a military camp. Traditionally, palisades were built with wooden stakes around small forts or castles as a way to keep out enemies. There's evidence that this kind of fence was often used in ancient Greece and Rome. More modern palisades are made out of metal and give protection to houses in dangerous neighborhoods, for example. The root word is the Latin palus, which means "stake."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

palisade palisades palisaded palisading

In the city of New Amsterdam, they grew crops and constructed important sites, including the palisade in 1653 that gave today’s Wall Street its name.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

At Amnya, her team also noted a possible sign of social stratification, another development often linked to agriculture: a cluster of houses that sat, undefended, outside the palisade.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 29, 2023

Buckingham Palace was taken aback, and it responded with a terse, 61-word statement that sought to contain the drama within the familiar royal palisade of privacy.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2022

The numerous small bumps in the palisade parenchyma cells are chloroplasts.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

On the south side of fire castle, moss grew thick upon the palisade and crept halfway up the towers.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

With room inside for dozens of people and dwellings sunk almost 2 meters deep for warmth in Siberian winters, the fortresses were ringed by earthen walls several meters high and topped with wooden palisades.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 29, 2023

The noodle house may be hard to find because it’s literally overshadowed by the palisades of the Great Wall Shopping Mall nearby.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2022

Other than the shell of a reconstructed barracks and the palisades outlining the fort, there were no other attempts at verisimilitude.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2022

Survivors from his expedition described large towns of thatched houses, surrounded by strong palisades and watchtowers.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

I put out my hand to feel the dark mass before me: I discriminated the rough stones of a low wall—above it, something like palisades, and within, a high and prickly hedge.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Last March, Historic St. Mary’s City announced that the outlines of the palisaded fort, erected by White settlers in 1634, had finally been discovered.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 23, 2022

The wonted inmates of the palisaded enclosure were no longer there, but their place was occupied by a shoal of even more wretched beings, just imported with a caravan from Guráguê.

From The Highlands of Ethiopia by William Cornwallis Harris

The task of building a palisaded Indian castle was slow and tedious,—the work of many long months, with their primitive methods.

From The Life and Times of Kateri Tekakwitha The Lily of the Mohawks by Ellen H. Walworth

Herr Stavenüter escorted his guests into the palisaded enclosure in which six or seven families of pheasants led a comfortable, petted life.

From Royal Highness by Thomas Mann

Another Indian habitation with pitched roof and palisaded walls once stood in a spot north of the present Pamunkey Indian Reservation, near West Point, Virginia.

From Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century by Henry Chandlee Forman

"I see you are admiring that semicircle of splendid heads that crown the palisading of the Sheldonian," said Bingham, as they came up close to the historic building.

From The New Warden by Mrs. David G. Ritchie

To this venerable ruin, which an iron palisading protects from wanton hands, clings the tradition that Parliaments of King John and Edward the First met under its shade, the last in October, 1290.

From The Dukeries by E. W. Haslehust

To reach this from Ollerton one crosses the bridge, turns to the right for a few yards, then on the left sees beyond a stout palisading the celebrated Beech Avenue.

From The Dukeries by E. W. Haslehust

From the prisoners he had learned all details as to the fort, and found that while almost impregnable from the river face, the flank of the fort was defended chiefly by a strong palisading.

From With Cochrane the Dauntless by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

In fortification, a space running along the outside of the ditch for the convenient passage of troops and guns, covered from the country by a palisading and the parapet of the glacis.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher

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