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  1. battlement love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A notched parapet built on top of a wall, with alternating merlons and crenels for decoration or defense. Also called embattlement.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In fortification, an indented parapet, formed by a series of rising members called cops or merlons, separated by openings called crenelles or embrasures, the soldier sheltering himself behind the merlon while he fires through the embrasure or through a loophole in the merlon. Battlements, although originally purely military, and used from the earliest times in Egypt, Assyria, and Greece, were also employed freely, generally in reduced size, during the middle ages, especially in England, upon ecclesiastical and civil buildings by way of mere ornament, on both parapets and cornices, and on tabernacle-work, transoms of windows, etc.
  2. n. Hence Any high wall for defense.

Wiktionary

  1. n. In fortification: an indented parapet, formed by a series of rising members called cops or merlons, separated by openings called crenelles or embrasures, the soldier sheltering himself behind the merlon while he fires through the embrasure or through a loophole in the battlement.
  2. n. Any high wall for defense.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. One of the solid upright parts of a parapet in ancient fortifications.
  2. n. The whole parapet, consisting of alternate solids and open spaces. At first purely a military feature, afterwards copied on a smaller scale with decorative features, as for churches.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns

Etymologies

  1. From Old French bataillement, earlier bastillement ("fortification"), from bastillier ("to fortify, to equip with battlements"), from bastille ("fortress") (see bastion). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English batelment, alteration (influenced by batel, battle) of Old French batillement, tower, turret, from bastille; see bastille. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Below the battlement was a room, and - as Maedhlyn had said - it was filled with interlocking wheels and levers.”

    Last Sword Of Power

  • “Perpendicular window, the heads of the lights below the transom being cinquefoiled, while above each window is a cornice supported by small arches resting on corbels; over all is a pierced battlement, which is also crenelated at the actual east end.”

    Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See

  • “Along one side of the square there ran the high brick wall, topped with a kind of battlement, that guarded the Maharajah's palace grounds from the eyes of men.”

    Rung Ho

  • “On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same granite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced at its base by a little door.”

    Allan Quatermain

  • “There is a barrel-shaped tower dedicated to the Brownings, a pyramid to Moses, a battlement-like tower dedicated to General John C. Frémont.”

    Joaquin Miller

  • “There is the fierce sound of voices yelling and hooting as we race up toward the moat's edge, firing at will, firing over the long black cannons that nose out along the battlement, silently commanding the northern horizon.”

    Fictionaut: Along the Battlement

  • “I would open an eye, waiting for it to absorb the scant light in the room, and I would see her on the far edge of the bed, the topography of her hips now a battlement to keep me at bay.”

    Fictionaut: Lovely

  • “On the other side, up a steep incline, the rays of the setting sun shone against a rather imposing castle battlement.”

    Simon & Schuster: Healing the Highlander

  • “Dougal looked to his left and saw a pair of Vanguard moving along the battlement toward them.”

    Simon & Schuster: Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon

  • “We walked along the battlement top of the walks where the inhabitants in acient times defended themselves and also entered their watch towers.”

    I have a dream...wanna see it?

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. crenellation

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. rampart
  1. wall
  1. bulwark

same context (11)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. battlements
  2. bastion
  1. drawbridge
  2. parapet
  1. palisade
  2. rampart
  1. belfry
  2. buttress
  1. portcullis
  2. glacis
  1. flagstone

reverse dictionary (21)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. crenelle
  2. embattle
  3. merlon
  4. embattlement
  1. machicolation
  2. embattled
  3. crenelated
  4. gutter member
  1. brattishing
  2. murdress
  3. carnel
  4. kernel
  1. crenel
  2. battlemented
  3. castellated
  4. castled
  1. mural crown
  2. cop
  3. crenelation
  4. crest
  1. garret

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. castle
  1. -ment
  1. shakespearean
  1. cvcccvcvcc

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Lists

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Comments

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  • madmouth "The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements" -Lady Macbeth Apr 12, 2009

  • chained_bear Jagged stone work protecting the wall walk or allure. Aug 24, 2008

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‘battlement’ has been looked up 1318 times, loved by 1 person, added to 14 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.