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fortress Definition

for·tress (fôrtris)

noun

a fortified place; fort: often used figuratively

Etymology: ME forteresse < OFr < VL *fortaricia < L fortis, strong: see fort

transitive verb

to protect by or furnish with a fortress

fortress Synonyms

fortress

n.

fortress Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • solitude: It's the sort of thing you would imagine Dylan's mom in The Fortress of Solitude knowing.

Converse of object

  • ruin: Just north is the Drugyel Dzong, a ruined fortress.
  • build: The remains on the hill belong to a fortress built in the Middle Ages.
  • impose: The Citadel was home to Egypt's rulers for 700 years; an imposing medieval fortress offering sweeping views of the city.
  • abandon: Up ahead there was an abandoned fortress, which must have once guarded this pass from invaders.
  • construct: In sections 40-42 of the work, Vortigern is attempting to construct a fortress, secure from his many enemies.
  • defend: The player's challenge is to build and defend medieval desert fortresses and lay siege to fearless enemies as European nobles or Arabian warriors.

Adjective modifier

  • legionary: One of the most important sites in Roman Britain, Caerleon housed a legionary fortress, the base for the 2nd Augustan Legion.
  • impregnable: The mission was to make the country an impregnable fortress.
  • Venetian: The old town is dominated by the old and the new Venetian Fortresses toward the northern end of town.
  • besieged: On the one hand, it was simply a system to regulate consumption in the " besieged fortress " .
  • mighty: His mighty fortress at Harlech towers above the coastline, against the background of the Snowdon mountain range.
  • medieval: A medieval fortress set 350 feet above the Cheshire plain.

Modifies a noun

  • artillery: This could lend weight to the idea that the French Army had maintained some of the fortress artillery in the fifties.

Noun used with modifier

  • legionary: The new wooden minster built by Edwin at York lay within what had been the headquarters building of the Roman legionary fortress.
  • hilltop: Leaving the park behind, we head to the brooding hilltop fortress of Amber.
  • Viking: It was built on the site of a Viking fortress and part dates from the 13 th century.
  • frontier: The City has been the gateway to North Wales since the Romans landed in Britain 2000 years ago and established a frontier fortress here.
  • island: Nebuchadnezzar conquered the mainland parts, but he could not conquer the island fortress.
  • desert: The player's challenge is to build and defend medieval desert fortresses and lay siege to fearless enemies as European nobles or Arabian warriors.
fortress Quotes

This is the story of the unconquerable fortressöthe American home.

—Selznick, David O(liver)

As in earlier days were our mechanics, such todayare our engineers, who may be required not only to tear down a fortress, and then to build it up again, but also to produce all sorts of engines based on mechanical principles, and with equal easeto defend or toannihilate a fortress.

—Leupold,Jakob

Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small.

—Miller, Arthur