Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In arckæol., a turret.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A turret.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French tourelle.

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Examples

  • In the cabinet in the tourelle was a narrow opening through which we could see my brother when he went up to the battlements, and the sole pleasure my mother had was to see him through that little chink as he passed in the distance.

    The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

  • La Merveille, or perilously lodged on the crumbling cornice of a tourelle, numerous rude altars had been hastily erected.

    In and out of Three Normady Inns Anna Bowman Dodd

  • 'Brownie's' den had, as I knew, a window in its _tourelle_, and as the night was moonlit though stormy, I might in a flitting moonbeam perhaps espy somewhat.

    Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease

  • Nor was there any opening on to the roof, so far as I could discover, for the little _tourelle_ overhung the wall, and no foothold was possible.

    Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease

  • Kirk, and from his little _tourelle_ we could survey as from an eyrie the coming and going of the citizens upon the street.

    Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease

  • They both re-entered the tourelle, where they remained until half an hour after midnight.

    The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

  • MM. de Malesherbes, Tronchet, and Desèze, his counsel, came to him; he was often obliged, in order to speak to them without being heard, to go with them into the little tourelle.

    The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

  • A municipal blamed me, ordered the door to be opened, and forbade me to shut it again; I opened the door, but the king was already in the tourelle.

    The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

  • It was necessary to cross this room to enter the cabinet made in the tourelle, and that cabinet, which served as a privy to the entire main building, was common to the royal family, the municipal officers, and the soldiers.

    The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

  • His Majesty left me with him and retired into the tourelle.

    The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912

Comments

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  • n. turret

    Tourelles and pediments, tall chimneys and cornices: perched on the edge of wildness it summed up the contradictions of the New World.

    —Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces

    July 4, 2008