BASTILLE

bastille

(noun) a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner)

Bastille

(noun) a fortress built in Paris in the 14th century and used as a prison in the 17th and 18th centuries; it was destroyed July 14, 1789 at the start of the French Revolution

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

bastille (plural bastilles)

A castle tower, or fortified building; a small citadel or fortress.

A prison or jail.

Verb

bastille (third-person singular simple present bastilles, present participle bastilling, simple past and past participle bastilled)

To confine as though in a bastille; to imprison.

Anagrams

• Balliets, bile salt, listable

Proper noun

Bastille

A prison in France, the storming of which in 1789 CE began the French Revolution.

Anagrams

• Balliets, bile salt, listable

Source: Wiktionary

Bas*tile" Bas*tille", n. Etym: [F. bastille fortress, OF. bastir to build, F. b.]

1. (Feud. Fort.)

Definition: A tower or an elevated work, used for the defense, or in the siege, of a fortified place. The high bastiles . . . which overtopped the walls. Holland.

2. "The Bastille", formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition