stockade

American  

[sto-keyd] / stɒˈkeɪd /

noun

1. Fortification. a defensive barrier consisting of strong posts or timbers fixed upright in the ground.

2. an enclosure or pen made with posts and stakes.

3. U.S. Military. a prison for military personnel.

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verb (used with object)

stockades, present (3rd person singular) stockaded, past participle, past stockading present participle

1. to protect, fortify, or encompass with a stockade.

stockade British  

/ stɒˈkeɪd /

noun

1. an enclosure or barrier of stakes and timbers

2. a military prison or detention area

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verb

1. (tr) to surround with a stockade

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• stockading
  present
• stockaded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stockade
  simple
• stockades
  simple
• have stockaded
  perfect
• has stockaded
  perfect
• am stockading
  progressive
• are stockading
  progressive
• is stockading
  progressive
• have been stockading
  perfect progressive
• has been stockading
  perfect progressive

Past

• stockaded
  simple
• had stockaded
  perfect
• was stockading
  progressive
• were stockading
  progressive
• had been stockading
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stockade
  simple
• will have stockaded
  perfect
• will be stockading
  progressive
• will have been stockading
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of stockade

1605–15; < Middle French estocade, variant of estacade < Spanish estacada. See stake ¹, -ade ¹

Explanation

A stockade is an enclosed pen used to herd cattle and other livestock. Stockades can also house people, in the sense of a penal camp. In both cases, the treatment tends to be on the rough side. Stockades are also built as a means of protection or defense. Fun fact: Did you know that one of the most famous stockades in America was the original Wall Street in New Amsterdam — that is, the protective wall of wooden stakes dug into the ground that separated the northernmost part of the Dutch settlement from Native American territory? Or at least it did until the Dutch, in need of firewood, chopped it down.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stockade stockades stockaded stockading

In the summer of 2008, Epstein began serving his sentence at the Palm Beach County stockade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026

Rejecting a First Amendment challenge, the court upheld Private Wilson’s conviction and sentence to four months in the stockade, a bad-conduct discharge, and other penalties.

From Salon ● Apr. 6, 2025

The Times, taking the opposite line, reported that Glenn and another student, Brendon Barr, were adjudged “incorrigible” and clocked in a stockade as a last resort.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2024

He talked back to Naval superiors when he served during World War II and got tossed in the stockade.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2023

The stockade was situated just at the bottom of the slope which dropped down into the encampment.

From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Those trenches helped the team identify post holes that in turn led to the pattern of holes and a stockade trench that matched stockades at other 18th-century military sites, Crawmer said.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2022

In the later stages of Cahokia, the ruling class surrounded themselves with fortified wooden stockades, including a two-mile long wall that enclosed Monks Mound.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2022

This applies universally but, with faith — I assume thanks to millennia of stakes, stockades and harangues — the tiptoeing impulse is strong.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2022

The term has also been synonymous with prisoner of war camps and stockades.

From Fox News ● Oct. 28, 2021

The Army hath raised stockades and breastworks to the south—to secure the road whereby goods are brought from the Carolinas—and to the east.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

I lingered until Michaela stockaded me in upturned chairs and dragged back to the flat.

From The Verge ● Mar. 31, 2018

The bustling scene of the stockaded fur-trading post at Fort Laramie was painted by Alfred Jacob Miller in 1837, when the Rocky Mountain fur trade had already passed its peak.

From Time Magazine Archive

Show me round your little kingdom, Sergeant Crusoe," ordered the captain, "the stockaded hut and the wheat patch and the goat pen, and so on.

From Time Magazine Archive

A pit village was usually stockaded to protect it against the assaults of foes.

From Women of England by James, Bartlett Burleigh

This market was closed by a portcullised door which permitted entrance through the stockaded wall, and was enclosed by a railed yard.

From The Story of Sitka The Historic Outpost of the Northwest Coast by Andrews, Clarence Leroy

He had wasted no time stockading huts or seeding patches.

From Time Magazine Archive

We remained here about three months, building and stockading our winter quarters, drilling and doing picket duty, and making occasional raids when we felt sure that the enemy was a safe distance from us.

From A Raw Recruit's War Experiences by Nickerson, Ansel D.

Twenty-four machines, captured from the Saracens by St. Lewis in his first partial success on the Nile, afforded material for stockading his whole camp.

From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 by Yule, Henry

Maha Nemiow had moved directly upon Prome; advancing slowly, and constantly stockading himself.

From On the Irrawaddy A Story of the First Burmese War by Overend, William Heysham

The red flames gathered brightness every moment, lighting up two sides of the stockading, in the midst of which the hall stood.

From A Prince of Cornwall A Story of Glastonbury and the West in the Days of Ina of Wessex by Whistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts)