Word Study
bastille
CIDE DICTIONARY
bastille, n. [F. bastille fortress, OF. bastir to build, F. b.].
- A tower or an elevated work, used for the defense, or in the siege, of a fortified place. [1913 Webster]"The high bastiles . . . which overtopped the walls." [1913 Webster]
- “The Bastille”, formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
bastille, n. hist. a fortress or prison.
Etymology
ME f. OF bastille f. Prov. bastir build: orig. of the fortress and prison in Paris, destroyed in 1789
THESAURUS
bastille
POW camp, black hole, borstal, borstal institution, bridewell, brig, bucket, caboose, calaboose, can, cell, chokey, concentration camp, condemned cell, confine, constrain, death cell, death house, death row, detention camp, federal prison, forced-labor camp, gaol, guardhouse, hoosegow, house of correction, house of detention, immure, incarcerate, industrial school, intern, internment camp, jail, jailhouse, jug, keep, labor camp, lockup, maximum-security prison, minimum-security prison, oubliette, pen, penal colony, penal institution, penal settlement, penitentiary, prison, prison camp, prisonhouse, quod, reform school, reformatory, sponging house, state prison, stockade, the hole, tollbooth, training schoolROGET THESAURUS
bastille
Prison
N prison, prison house, jail, gaol, cage, coop, den, cell, stronghold, fortress, keep, donjon, dungeon, Bastille, oubliette, bridewell, house of correction, hulks, tollbooth, panopticon, penitentiary, guardroom, lockup, hold, round house, watch house, station house, sponging house, station, house of detention, black hole, pen, fold, pound, inclosure, isolation (exclusion), penal settlement, penal colony, bilboes, stocks, limbo, quod, calaboose, chauki, choky, thana, workhouse, Newgate, Fleet, Marshalsea, King's Bench, Queen's Bench, bond, bandage, irons, pinion, gyve, fetter, shackle, trammel, manacle, handcuff, straight jacket, strait jacket, strait-jacket, strait-waistcoat, hopples, vice, vise, yoke, collar, halter, harness, muzzle, gag, bit, brake, curb, snaffle, bridle, rein, reins, bearing rein, martingale, leading string, tether, picket, band, guy, chain, cord, cavesson, hackamore, headstall, jaquima, lines, ribbons, bolt, deadbolt, bar, lock, police lock, combination lock, padlock, rail, wall, stone wall, paling, palisade, fence, picket fence, barbed wire fence, Cyclone fence, stockade fence, chain-link fence, barrier, barricade, drag.For further exploring for "bastille" in Webster Dictionary Online
