bastion
noun
- structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈbæsti.ən/ / /ˈbastɪjən/ / /ˈbæst͡ʃən/
noun
Etymology: First attested in 1562. From French bastion, from Old French bastille (“fortress”).
- A projecting part of a rampart or other fortification.
“[…] Fort Camosun had swelled herself from being a little Hudson's Bay Fort, inside a stockade with bastions at the corners, into being the little town of Victoria, and the capital of British Columbia.”
- A well-fortified position; a stronghold or citadel.
- A person, group, or thing, that strongly defends some principle.
“a bastion of hope”
“the bastion of democracy”
- Any large prominence; something that resembles a bastion in size and form.
“[…] yonder cloud That rises upward always higher, And onward drags a labouring breast, And topples round the dreary west, A looming bastion fringed with fire.”
“It spread slowly up from the sea-rim, a welling upwards of pure white light, ghosting the beach with silver and drawing the grey bastions of sandstone out of formless space.”
verb
Etymology: First attested in 1562. From French bastion, from Old French bastille (“fortress”).
- To furnish with a bastion.