noun
bastion
BAS-chun/ˈbæstʃən/
A fortified strongpoint protecting a place.
The stone bastion projects from the walls protecting the town.
Etymology
French bastillon was a diminutive of a word for a fortress or fortified building. A bastion’s literal role as a defensive projection supplies the image of an institution protecting a belief or way of life.
In context
It was a defensive bastion used by King Sancho III the Great to halt the advance of Islam.
More examples
- The defenders position a cannon inside the stone bastion.
- Soldiers guard the two outer bastions.
- A moat surrounds the fortress and its projecting bastions.
Forms
bastion · bastions
Similar words
- stronghold
- Can name a whole defended place rather than a projecting fortification.
- bulwark
- Emphasizes protection against a threat rather than the place defended.