redoubt

noun

re·​doubt ri-ˈdau̇t How to pronounce redoubt (audio)
1
a
: a small usually temporary enclosed defensive work
b
: a defended position : protective barrier
2
: a secure retreat : stronghold

Did you know?

Based on its spelling, you might think that redoubt shares its origin with words such as doubt and redoubtable, both of which derive from the Latin verb dubitare, meaning "to be in doubt." But that's not the case. Redoubt actually derives via the French redoute and the Italian ridotto from a different Latin verb—reducere, meaning "to lead back," the same root that gives us reduce. How that b ended up in redoubt is a lingering question, but some etymologists have posited that the word might have been conflated with another redoubt—a now-archaic transitive verb meaning "to regard with awe, dismay, or dread." Unlike its homographic twin, that redoubt does derive from the same root as doubt and redoubtable.

Examples of redoubt in a Sentence

The refugees gathered in a hilly redoubt several miles outside the city. a massive stone redoubt at the entrance of the bay guarded the city
Recent Examples on the Web The collapse had been particularly swift in the priest’s own Brazil — the church’s strongest redoubt by measure of Catholic adherents. Bishop Sand, Washington Post, 17 Feb. 2024 Gaza’s southernmost city sits astride the frontier with Egypt and is, according to Israeli officials, Hamas’ last redoubt after more than four months of devastating conflict that followed the militant organization’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Neri Zilber, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Feb. 2024 And a potential Israeli push against the last major redoubt at Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt, jeopardizes more than 1 million Gazan refugees who have been driven there over the course of the ongoing war. Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2024 The human misery unfurling across Gaza finds little sympathy in the Israeli public discourse, where the priority remains the vanquishing of Hamas — perpetrators of the single bloodiest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust — and the freeing of hostages held in Hamas’s Gazan redoubts. Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 5 Jan. 2024 Whenever they’ve been given a chance to do so, voters have rejected the call to limit reproductive freedoms—including in ruby-red redoubts such as Kentucky and Kansas. Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 6 Oct. 2023 The change is part of a pattern that has remade the West, turning the onetime Republican redoubt into a deep well of Democratic support. Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2023 On an island of magnificent beauty, where a wildfire as fierce as a blowtorch has left hundreds dead or missing in a redoubt of 19th-century Hawaiian kings, many local residents are crying with friends one moment, working to please vacationers the next. Damien Cave Michelle Mishina Kunz, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2023 Though there have only been seven wild polio cases recorded this year — in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last redoubts of the wild viruses — there does not appear to be enough time left in 2023 to stop the still ongoing spread, the report concluded. Helen Branswell, STAT, 15 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'redoubt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

French redoute, from Italian ridotto, from Medieval Latin reductus secret place, from Latin, withdrawn, from past participle of reducere to lead back — more at reduce

First Known Use

circa 1608, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of redoubt was circa 1608

Dictionary Entries Near redoubt

Cite this Entry

“Redoubt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redoubt. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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