STRONGHOLD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stronghold mean? 

• STRONGHOLD (noun)
  The noun STRONGHOLD has 1 sense:

1. a strongly fortified defensive structure

  Familiarity information: STRONGHOLD used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STRONGHOLD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A strongly fortified defensive structure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

fastness; stronghold

Hypernyms ("stronghold" is a kind of...):

defence; defense; defensive structure (a structure used to defend against attack)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stronghold"):

bastion; citadel (a stronghold into which people could go for shelter during a battle)

blockhouse (a stronghold that is reinforced for protection from enemy fire; with apertures for defensive fire)

hold (a stronghold)

donjon; dungeon; keep (the main tower within the walls of a medieval castle or fortress)

redoubt (an entrenched stronghold or refuge)

 Context examples 

If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would take possession of any unprotected loophole and shoot us down like rats in our own stronghold.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Nor did it take long for every stronghold to pour forth its cavalry, and every hamlet its footmen.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Erected by Sir Balwin de Redvers in the old fighting days of the twelfth century, when men thought much of war and little of comfort, Castle Twynham had been designed as a stronghold pure and simple, unlike those later and more magnificent structures where warlike strength had been combined with the magnificence of a palace.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)