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Definition of bastion
1 : a projecting part of a fortification a bastion at each of the fort's five corners
2 : a fortified area or position bombing island bastions
3 : stronghold 2 the last bastion of academic standards — Amer. Scientist
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Examples of bastion in a Sentence
the rebel army retreated to its bastion in the mountains to regroup
Recent Examples of bastion from the Web
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There are about a dozen of these bar-arcade fusions in Chicago, said Jody Dankberg, director of marketing and licensing at Stern Pinball, one of the world's largest remaining bastions of pinball machine manufacturing.
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Today, the massive building at the northern tip of Mount Pleasant on 16th Street overlooking a branch of Rock Creek is one of the last bastions of affordable housing in the area.
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Over some 20 uncontested years in charge, Davao's padrino claimed to have transformed the place into a bastion of order and prosperity in the troubled south.
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That Big Ten bastion of crazed sports fans decked out in a sea of red.
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On this day in history, Ma and Pa Streep blessed us with a daughter named Meryl, who, 68 years later, would be regarded as one of the last bastions of happiness and goodness in the godforsaken summer of 2017.
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The lovable bastion of quirky urban sport that is the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA Tennis Center will shut its doors for good on June 30, 2017, the result of its lease not being renewed.
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Football was the last bastion where club programs weren’t involved.
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The central bastion has crumbled from 90 feet to 46, and the whole thing was once connected to 12 additional lookout masts by a rampart.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bastion'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
Bastion is constructed of etymological building blocks that are very similar to those of "bastille" (a word now used as a general term for a prison, but probably best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution). The history of "bastion" can be traced through Middle French to the Old Italian verb bastire, which means "to build." "Bastille" descends from the Old Occitan verb "bastir," which also means "to build." "Bastir" and "bastire" are themselves of Germanic origin and akin to the Old High German word besten, meaning "to patch."
Origin and Etymology of bastion
Middle French, from Old Italian bastione, augmentative of bastia fortress, derivative from dialect form of bastire to build, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German besten to patch
BASTION Defined for English Language Learners
bastion
playDefinition of bastion for English Language Learners
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: a place or system in which something (such as an old-fashioned idea) continues to survive
Learn More about bastion
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for bastion Spanish Central: Translation of bastion Nglish: Translation of bastion for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of bastion for Arabic speakers
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