bastille

• bastile (obsolete)

From French bastille, from Late Latin bastilia, plural of bastile, from bastire (“to build”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): [bæˈstɪəɫ], [bæˈstiːɫ]

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bastille (plural bastilles)

1. A prison or jail.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, I.2:

     Thither arriv'd, th' advent'rous Knight / And bold Squire from their Steeds alight, / At th' outward Wall, near which there stands / A Bastile, built t' imprison Hands [...].

2. Confusion of bastille with bastion (bulwark).

bastille (third-person singular simple present bastilles, present participle bastilling, simple past and past participle bastilled)

1. To confine as though in a bastille; to imprison.
   • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman‎:

     Marriage had bastilled me for life.

• Balliets, bile salt, listable

From Medieval Latin bastilia, plural of bastile, from Medieval Latin bastīre (“to build, sew”).

• IPA^(key): /bas.tij/
• Rhymes: -ij

bastille f (plural bastilles)

1. fortress

• “bastille”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.