Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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name
A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Chiefly in French contexts: a bastion (“projecting part of a rampart or other fortification”) or tower of a castle; also, a fortified tower or other building; or a small citadel or fortress.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, derogatory, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: workhouse
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
Topics: government, military, politics, war
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To confine (someone or something) in, or as if in, a bastille (noun sense 2.1) or prison; to imprison.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bang up, bastille, clap up, confine, gaol, incarcerate, immure, imprison, jail, lock up, mew up, put away, roof, send down
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: jail, jailhouse, gaol, clink, slammer, poky, pokey, prison, prison house
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
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: fortress, fort
History
Borrowed from French Bastille, from bastille (“fortress”): see further at the English entry bastille. The building was known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, and was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The noun is derived from Middle English bastile, bastel (“fortification for attack mounted on a barge or wheels; projecting part of a fortification, bastion, turret; fortified encampment of a besieging army; structure carrying armed men on an elephant’s back; (figuratively) refuge, shelter; protector”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman bastile, bastille, Middle French bastille, and Old French baastel, basstel (“fortification; fortified tower; temporary fortification constructed for attack or defence; (small) castle or fortress”) (modern French bastille; compare Medieval Latin bastīle), from bastide (“fortification; fortress”) with the ending modified after nouns ending in -ille (from Latin -īle (suffix forming place names)). Bastide is derived from Old Occitan bastida (“fortification; (Provence) country mansion”), from bastir (“to build, construct”) + -ida (suffix forming nouns); while bastir is from *bastīre, from Frankish *bastijan (“to sew; to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (“fibre; rope”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bhask- ~ *bhasḱ- (“bundle, heap, load”) but this is disputed. Compare typologically Russian опло́т (oplót), плете́нь (pleténʹ) (akin to плести́ (plestí)). Noun sense 2.1 (“jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners”) is from the Bastille in Paris, France. Known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, it was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Bastille was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789 at the start of the French Revolution and later demolished, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement. Noun sense 2.2 (“workhouse”) was possibly popularized by the English politician William Cobbett (1763–1835) who opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4 & 5 William IV, chapter 76; often called the “New Poor Law”). This Act made relief or welfare for poor people only available through workhouses, and ensured that the working conditions were harsh so that only the truly destitute would apply for relief. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates Late Latin bastile (“wooden siege tower”), bastilla, bastillia, bastillus, bastellum (“fortification; wooden siege tower”)
Across languages
40 source translations are retained for this English entry.
