bastille

plural bastilles · alternative bastile

1. Chiefly in French contexts: a bastion (“projecting part of a rampart or other fortification”) or tower of a castle; also, a fortified tower or other building; or a small citadel or fortress.

   H' incounters Talgol, routs the Bear, / And takes the Fidler Prisoner; / Conveys him to enchanted Castle, / There shuts him fast in wooden Bastile.

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 28

2. figurativelyA jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners.

   ―The devil it is! ſaid I—but I vvill go to ten thouſand Baſtiles firſt— […]

   1765, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXXV, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume VII, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 129

   3 more examples

   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; / By strange enchantment made to fetter / The lesser parts, and free the greater. / For though the Body may creep through, / The Hands in Grate are fast enough.

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 57

   But Nigel was somewhat immured within the Bastile of his rank, as some philosopher, (Tom Paine, we think,) has happily enough expressed that sort of shyness which men of dignified situations are apt to be beset with, […]

   1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III (in English), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 55–56

   Whithersoever you choose; but by what means of conveyance[?] […] Shall it be the Great Northern, hard by Battle Bridge and Pentonville's frowning bastille?

   1859, George Augustus Sala, “Seven o’Clock a.m.—A Parliamentary Train”, in Twice Round the Clock; or The Hours of the Day and Night in London. […], London: Houlston and Wright, […], →OCLC, page 58

3. UKderogatoryfigurativelySynonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”).

   Synonyms: workhouse

4. historicalgovernmentThe fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment.

   VVhen they ſhould have ſtood to it in field, and fought, then they fled back to their tends: vvhen they vvere to guard and defend their trench and rampart, they ſurrendered them to the enemy: good no vvhere, neither in battel nor in baſtil.

   1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XXII]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 380

present singular third person bastilles · participle present bastilling · participle past bastilled · past bastilled · alternative bastile

1. alsofigurativelytransitiveTo confine (someone or something) in, or as if in, a bastille (noun sense 2.1) or prison; to imprison.

   Marriage had baſtilled me for life.

   1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC, chapter X, page 34

   5 more examples

   Inſtead of forging Chains for Foreigners, / Baſtile thy Tutor: Grandeur All thy Aim?

   1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 332

   [W]hy if you don't ſcamper, you'll be baſtil'd, before you can ſay, "Killarney."

   1791 (first performance), [Frederic] Reynolds, Notoriety: A Comedy, Dublin: […] P. Byrne, […], published 1792, →OCLC, Act IV, scene [i], page 43

   Behold them Bastilling the mildest and most indulgent monarch that ever sat upon their throne; […]

   1793 January 17, Anna Seward, “Letter LXII. Miss Helen Williams, at Paris.”, in Letters of Anna Seward: Written between the Years 1784 and 1807. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] George Ramsay & Company, for Archibald Constable and Company; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, William Miller, and John Murray, published 1811, →OCLC, page 204

   Eh bien! there is another one who is beloved by one of your daughters, which did not prevent you from Bastilling him with a vengeance.

   1845, Alexandre Dumas, “What Takes Place at the House in the Rue du Bac while Waiting for Gaston”, in Charles H. Town, transl., The Regent’s Daughter. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, part III, page 72, column 1

   "Ideas cannot be Bastilled. They pierce walls, vaults—" / "No phrases, my dear fellow: that does very well for the public, otherwise the fools. Ideas are very easily Bastilled, as you call it."

   1852, chapter VI, in The Court and the Desert; or, Priests, Pastors, and Philosophers, in the Time of Louis XV. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley […], →OCLC, page 109

   Synonyms: bang up, clap up, confine, gaol, incarcerate, immure, imprison, jail

alternative obsolete Bastile

1. A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.