▪ I. bastille, -ile, n.
(bɑːˈstiːl, -æ-, ˈbɑːstɪl, -æ-)
Forms: 4 bastele, 4–5 -el, 5 -yle, -elle, -yll, 5–6 ylle, 6 -il, -ell, (Sc. bastillie, -alyie, -ailyei), 7 bastill, 8– bastille, 4–bastile.
[a. F. bastille (15th c. in Littré):―late L. bastīlia, pl. of bastīle, f. bastīre to build (cf. sedīle, sedīlia, f. sedēre). In mod.Eng. refashioned after Fr.; the regular form from ME. bastel(e would be bastle.]
1. A tower or bastion of a castle; a fortified tower; a small fortress.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 799 Bastel rouez, þat blenked ful quyte. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas ii. xvii. (1554) 56 a, Square bastiles and bulwarkes to make. 1494 Fabyan vii. 516 Y⊇ prouoste..went to dyner vnto y⊇ bastyle of Seynt Denys. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. 182 To repair the said wall in all partis, with touris and bastailyeis. 1664 Butler Hud. i. ii. Argt., Conveys him to enchanted Castle, There shuts him fast in Wooden Bastile. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Borders I. 144 Ruins of bastiles and castles. |
2. spec. in siege operations: a. A wooden tower on wheels for the protection of the besieging troops. b. One of a series of huts, surrounded by entrenchments, provided for their accommodation.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1187 At vch brugge a berfray on basteles wyse. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xviii, Sette their bastyles and their hurdeys eke Rounde about to the harde wall. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxiv, Thys bastylle muste be aduironned with hirdels aboute and dawbed thykke with erthe and clay therupon, and it may be sette vpon wheles. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccccxxix. 754 And so lodged in Calays..in bastylles that they made dayly. 1600 Holland Livy xxii. lx. 471 Good no where, neither in battaile nor in bastill [castris]. 1750 Carte Hist. Eng. II. 717 A bastille or small wooden fort was erected on the land side. 1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 352 Bastilles, or huts defended by intrenchments were constructed round the city. |
| fig. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas (1554) 67 b Oblivion, Hath a bastyll of foryetfulnes To stop the passage. |
3. Name of the prison-fortress built in Paris in the 14th century, and destroyed in 1789.
| 1561 R. Norvell (title) The Meroure of an Christian, composed..during the tyme of his captiuetie at Paris, in the Bastillie. 1783 Cowper Task v. 383 Her [France's] house of bondage..the Bastille. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iv. iii. I. 162 That rock-fortress, Tyranny's stronghold, which they name Bastille, or Building, as if there were no other building. |
4. By extension: A prison.
| 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 143 One of the old palaces of Paris, now converted into a Bastile for kings. 1861 Sala Tw. round Clock 58 Pentonville's frowning bastille. 1884 Ransom City (Dakota) Paper 9 Feb., Fined $25, and ten days in the bastile, for selling liquor to the Indians. |
Add: 5. Special Comb. Bastille Day = Quatorze Juillet n.
| 1900 Outlook (N.Y.) LXV. 909/1 The Spectator was in Paris on *Bastille Day. 1986 Times 16 July 17/3 By first invoking the ghost of President de Gaulle,..and doing so moreover on Bastille Day—he has practically pinned the tricolor to his cause. |
▪ II. bastille, -ile, v.
(bɑːˈstiːl, -æ-, ˈbɑːstɪl, -æ-)
Also 5 bastyle.
[a. OF. bastille-r (also bateillier), f. bastille; see prec. In sense 2 formed on the Eng. n.]
† 1. To fortify (a castle). Obs.
| 1480 Caxton Ovid's Met. xi. v, Laomedon..redyed hym for to bastyle & edefy the new Troye. c 1500 Partenay 1134 When thys castell was bastiled fair. |
2. To confine in a bastille; to imprison.
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1058 Instead of forging chains for foreigners, Bastile thy Tutor. a 1798 M. Wollstonecraft Wks. II. 34 Marriage had bastilled me for life. 1863 W. Phillips Speeches xix. 422 One thousand men..are ‘bastiled’ by an authority as despotic as that of Louis. |