Definition of BASTION (original) (raw)
1
: a projecting part of a fortification
a bastion at each of the fort's five corners
2
: a fortified area or position
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Bastion is related to 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). It comes from the Italian verb bastire, which means "to build."
Synonyms
Examples of bastion in a Sentence
the rebel army retreated to its bastion in the mountains to regroup
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Thought to have been built sometime during the Post-Classic Mesoamerican period (1350 to 1521), the city stood as a bastion of Zapotec culture, which first emerged in the late 6th century B.C. and flourished until the Spanish commenced their conquest of Central America. —
Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 30 Jan. 2025 The big new corporate bet: Bitcoin Corporate treasury departments are usually bastions of caution, preferring to invest their companies’ money in stable assets like Treasury bonds. —Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2025 Leaders in Pyongyang, Beijing and Moscow are likely watching the developments in Seoul with an eye to its potential to undermine a key bastion of US power in the region – and all eyes are now on North Korea, which may be keen to use the political chaos to its advantage. —Simone McCarthy, CNN, 4 Dec. 2024 And even JPMorgan Chase — not exactly a bastion of liberalism — on Wednesday seemed to draw a line in the sand. —Allison Morrow, CNN, 25 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for bastion 
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Middle French, borrowed from Italian bastione, from bastia "small quadrangular fortress" (from an Upper Italian counterpart to Tuscan bastita, from feminine past participle of bastire "to build," probably borrowed from Old Occitan bastir "to weave, build," or its Gallo-Romance ancestor) + -one, augmentative suffix (going back to Latin -ō, -ōn-, suffix of nouns denoting persons with a prominent feature) — more at bastille
First Known Use
1546, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of bastion was in 1546
Dictionary Entries Near bastion
Cite this Entry
“Bastion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bastion. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
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Last Updated: 13 Feb 2025 - Updated example sentences
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