[a. F. bastion, 16th c., ad. It. bastione, f. bastire to build, construct, late L. or common Romanic, of uncertain origin; generally referred to the same root as baston, baton.]
1. A projecting part of a fortification, consisting of an earthwork, faced with brick or stone, or of a mass of masonry, in the form of an irregular pentagon, having its base in the main line, or at an angle, of the fortification; its ‘flanks’ are the two sides which spring from the base, and are shorter than the ‘faces’ or two sides which meet in the acute ‘salient angle.’
Cut bastion: one with its salient angle cut off and replaced by an inward angle. Detached bastion: one constructed apart from the fortification, also called a LUNETTE. Double bastion: two bastions, one placed inside the other. Empty bastion: one in which the interior surface is lower than the rampart. Flat bastion: one placed in front of a ‘curtain.’ Full or solid bastion: one in which the interior surface is level with the rampart. Tower bastion: a tower built like a bastion and provided with casemates.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iii. 135. Baskets to cary earth to the bastion.
1693. Mem. Ct. Teckely, I. 14. This small City, flanked with five good Bastions.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 54. Bastions faced with hewn stone.
1812. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., IX. 27. To breach the face of Bastion at the south east angle of the fort.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. v. 58. Sharp as the frontal angle of a bastion.
2. transf. and fig. Rampart, fortification, defence.
1679. Est. Test., 27. The frontier and Bastion of the Protestant Religion.
1781. Cowper, Convers., 688. They build each other up … As bastions set point-blank against God’s will.
1858. Longf., Ladder St. Aug., ix. The distant mountains, that uprear Their solid bastions to the skies.
