redoubt

noun re·doubt \ ri-ˈdau̇t \

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

Definition of redoubt

1 a : a small usually temporary enclosed defensive work

b : a defended position : protective barrier

2 : a secure retreat : stronghold

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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 of redoubt from the Web

Even though only two states have actually voted so far this primary election season — Texas, a red-state redoubt, and Illinois, a blue-state stronghold — the battle for supremacy this primary season is all but complete.

— james hohmann, Washington Post, "The Daily 202: Visuals and ego motivate Trump to take a harder line on Putin," 30 Mar. 2018
Last August, the Lebanese Army defeated several hundred Islamic State militants and drove them from their mountainous redoubt in northeast Lebanon.

— nicholas blanford, The Christian Science Monitor, "Russia-Lebanon deal? What the resurgent power sees in Syria's tiny neighbor.," 15 Mar. 2018
The Democrats’ latest hopes for Texas - still a Republican redoubt - emerged the day after the 2016 elections.

— kevin diaz, San Antonio Express-News, "Houston emerges as key battleground in the battle for Congress," 5 Mar. 2018
Dartmouth, that onetime conservative redoubt, had a student body where support for Trump just days before the election stood at 4.8 percent.

— alexander nazaryan, Newsweek, "What Is College Good For? Absolutely Nothing, Say Republicans (and Some Democrats)," 1 Feb. 2018
One reason for this profitability, aside from the dizzying amount of connections, is the control that Hartsfield’s largest tenant exerts from its south Atlanta redoubt.

— Time, "Delta Will Never, Ever Leave Georgia. Here's Why," 28 Feb. 2018
Other above-average yields for mid-January popped up in flights out of fortress hubs—like United’s redoubt in Newark, and Delta’s Atlanta base.

— barbara peterson, Condé Nast Traveler, "How to Tell If You're Getting Ripped Off on Airfare," 12 Feb. 2018
While United benefits from lucrative international operations at its coastal redoubts in San Francisco and Newark, N.J., profit margins at its mid-continent hubs - Chicago, Houston and Denver - trail rivals by 10 percentage points, Kirby said.

— michael sasso, Houston Chronicle, "United swoons as growth plan sparks new clash with Wall Street," 24 Jan. 2018
The gathering at an Alpine ski resort is a redoubt of globalist, free-trade thinking starkly at odds with Trump’s worldview.

— justin sink, Bloomberg.com, "Trump to Attend Davos, White House Says," 9 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'redoubt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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 a Latin verb, dubitare. But that's not the case. "Redoubt" actually derives via French and Italian 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."

Origin and Etymology of redoubt

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

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1608

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year