casbah

noun

cas·​bah ˈkaz-ˌbä How to pronounce casbah (audio) ˈkäz- How to pronounce casbah (audio)
variants or Casbah or less commonly kasbah or Kasbah
1
: a North African castle or fortress
2
: the native section of a North African city

Examples of casbah in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The face-offs that started with a break-in at Wick’s house have since traveled to antique weapons stores and Casablanca casbahs; New York City tunnels, bridges, harbors, and public libraries; and European museums and churches, with no civilians ever getting caught in the crossfire. Vulture, 25 Mar. 2023 La Muralla Roja, designed in 1968 and completed in 1973, in the coastal city of Calpe, reimagined the North African casbah as a bright pink assemblage of walls and stairways as if arranged by M.C. Escher. New York Times, 19 Jan. 2022 The records company’s founder Neil Bogart channeled the movie Casablanca with a disco touch, depicting a desert casbah invitation to the exotic city. Roxanne Robinson, Forbes, 28 Aug. 2021 She was arrested at a hideout in the casbah in 1957 but freed five years later, when Algeria declared independence in 1962, sparking the mass exodus of Europeans from the country. Washington Post, 9 July 2021 The community’s salmon-pink palette was suggested by the rosy sandstone walls, and its hilltop clubhouse, introduced by a Middle Eastern-style water stair, was placed to overlook the villas like a casbah surveying so many riads. Peter Haldeman, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2017

Word History

Etymology

French, from Arabic dialect qaṣba

First Known Use

1844, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of casbah was in 1844

Dictionary Entries Near casbah

Cite this Entry

“Casbah.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/casbah. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

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