banquette

plural banquettes

1. governmentA narrow area behind a defensive wall's parapet elevated above its terreplein and used by defenders to shoot at attackers.
2. A bench built into a wall, especially (military) one built into a wall of a defensive trench, used for sitting and for shooting at attackers.
3. An upholstered bench, e.g., along a wall of a restaurant or lounge area.

   Stoned, she would traipse in, overtly sexual in last night's dress, and throw herself exhausted across the banquette.

   2017, Fiona Lewis, Mistakes Were Made (Some in French), Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 165

4. datedA bench or similar seat on top of a diligence or other public vehicle.

   My brother-in-law […] took refuge in the banquette.

   1899, Julia Ward Howe, Reminiscences

5. LouisianaTexasA sidewalk.

   The boys were dragging along the banquette a small “express wagon,” which they had filled with blocks and sticks.

   1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening

   1 more example

   “Get the hell away from that stove, Charmaine, and go play out on the banquette before I bust you right in the mouth.”

   1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN