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Bastile

   Also found in: Legal, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
Bas`tile´    (bås`tēl´ or bås´tėl; 277)
n.1.
1.(Feud. Fort.) 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.


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You would have almost thought they were pulling down the cursed Bastile, such wild cries they raised, as the now useless brick and mortar were being hurled into the sea.
Moby Dick LXVIII-CXXXIV by Melville, Herman View in context
The said lord being cramped for dungeon-room had asked the queen to accommodate his two criminals, and here in her bastile they had been ever since; hither, indeed, they had come before their crime was an hour old, and had never seen each other since.
A Connecticut Yankee by Twain, Mark View in context
"Monsieur d'Artagnan," he said, "you are to take this dispatch to the Bastile and bring back here the person it concerns.
Twenty Years After by Dumas, Alexandre View in context
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