palisade

plural palisades

1. A long, strong stake, one end of which is set firmly in the ground, and the other sharpened.
2. governmentA wall of wooden stakes, used as a defensive barrier.

   Before the clearing had been half crossed the Arabs opened up a withering fire from behind the palisade.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 135

   2 more examples

   We had soon touched land in the same place as before and set to provision the blockhouse. All three made the first journey, heavily laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade.

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

   I realize how universal the desire to injure your fellow man is. … Only hear the government of laws and lawyers puts a palisade up. They can injure you a lot, make your life hideous, but they can't actually do you in.

   1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 261

3. A line of cliffs, especially one showing basaltic columns.
4. biologyAn even row of cells, e.g., palisade mesophyll cells.

present singular third person palisades · participle present palisading · participle past palisaded · past palisaded

1. alsointransitivepassivetransitiveusuallyTo equip with a palisade.

   They stood at bay in an old palisaded fort.

   1909, John R. Musick, The Real America in Romance, Volume 6; A Century Too Soon (A Story

   3 more examples

   The Hut, well palisaded, would make a work that could not be easily carried, without artillery."

   1871, James Fenimore Cooper, Wyandotte

   But where, through the development of trade or any other cause, a good many of them grew up close together within a narrow compass, they gradually coalesced into a kind of compound town; and with the greater population and greater wealth, there was naturally more elaborate and permanent fortification than that of the palisaded village.

   1890, John Fiske, Civil Government in the United States Considered with

   The ensuing dispute led to a bloody battle on the island, in which the English rushed up to the palisaded fort, began firing in at the portholes, and set fire to the village.

   1957, Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, Bacon's Rebellion, 1676

1. A town in Mesa County, Colorado, United States.