Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A defensive barrier made of strong posts or timbers driven upright side by side into the ground.
- noun A similar fenced or enclosed area, especially one used for protection.
- noun A jail on a military base.
- transitive verb To fortify, protect, or surround with a stockade.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To encompass or fortify with posts or piles fixed in the ground.
- noun In fortification, a fence or barrier constructed by planting upright in the ground timber, piles, or trunks of trees, so as to inclose an area which is to be defended.
- noun An inclosure or pen made with posts and stakes.
- noun In hydraulic engineering, a row of piles serving as a breakwater, or to protect an embankment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To surround, fortify, or protect with a stockade.
- noun (Mil.) A line of stout posts or timbers set firmly in the earth in contact with each other (and usually with loopholes) to form a barrier, or defensive fortification.
- noun An inclosure, or pen, made with posts and stakes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun an
enclosure protected by a wall of woodenposts - noun colloquial a
military prison - verb transitive To enclose in a stockade.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb surround with a stockade in order to fortify
- noun fortification consisting of a fence made of a line of stout posts set firmly for defense
- noun a penal camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are confined (usually under harsh conditions)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A big but insecure stockade is built of branches and bamboo poles.
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The Lone Star Stories Reader got reviewed by Publishers Weekly and my story "Wolf Night" got a very nice mention: The western meets dark fantasy in Martha Wells's standout “Wolf Night,” when a group of people barricaded in a stockade are attacked by an otherworldly creature.
September 22nd, 2008 2008
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Studentswere busy organizing against the campus military center, sometimes called the stockade, holding demonstrations and putting anti-war material in front of the recruiting and training center.
No Draft. No Way. 2008
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But the most awkward part of the stockade was the part out of sight: some of the piles which had been driven in did not appear above water, so that it was dangerous to sail up, for fear of running the ships upon them, just as upon a reef, through not seeing them.
The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides 2005
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The stockade was a solid palisade of saplings driven deep into the ground and covering an area of twenty feet by eighteen.
The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told Underwood, Lamar 2001
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A gigantic tree grows within the stockade, which is a very poor one.
Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries William Griffith
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That the redskins were making an attack in force on the stockade was my first and immediate conclusion, but it gave me no great uneasiness since
The Cryptogram A Story of Northwest Canada William Murray Graydon 1905
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Keddah -- that is, the stockade -- looked like a picture of the end of the world, and men had to make signs to one another, because they could not hear themselves speak.
The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling 1900
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Almost the first object that met their eyes as they neared the stockade was a jagged break in the structure caused by a large object that had come crashing down upon it.
The Border Boys Across the Frontier John Henry Goldfrap 1898
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He and the others set to work to clear the grounds within, called the stockade, and then a long, low log house was started at one side, and a low storehouse and horse stable at the other.
On the Trail of Pontiac Edward Stratemeyer 1896
bilby commented on the word stockade
"For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade."
- Victor Appleton, 'Tom Swift And His Electric Locomotive'.
August 28, 2009