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. Ye prouoste … went to dyner vnto ye 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. 491. 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.
