Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A military fortification constructed of sturdy material, such as concrete, and designed with ports for defensive firing or observation.
  • noun A heavily reinforced building used for launch operations of missiles and space launch vehicles.
  • noun A fort made of squared timbers with a projecting upper story.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, a detached fort blocking the access to a landing, a mountain pass, narrow channel, etc.; in later use, an edifice of one or more stories, constructed chiefly of hewn timber, and supplied with loopholes for musketry and sometimes with embrasures for cannon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mil.) An edifice or structure of heavy timbers or logs for military defense, having its sides loopholed for musketry, and often an upper story projecting over the lower, or so placed upon it as to have its sides make an angle wit the sides of the lower story, thus enabling the defenders to fire downward, and in all directions; -- formerly much used in America and Germany.
  • noun West. & South. U. S. A house of squared logs.

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

  • noun A sturdy military fortification, often of concrete, with gunports.
  • noun A reinforced building from which to control hazardous operations, such as an explosion or a rocket launch.
  • noun dated A temporary wooden fortification with a projecting upper story.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stronghold that is reinforced for protection from enemy fire; with apertures for defensive fire

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This fort was of the kind called a blockhouse, which is a house built of logs made to fit close together.

    Stories of American Life and Adventure Edward Eggleston 1869

  • Set in the wall opposite the blockhouse was a tall, arch-shaped doorway and a pair of solid wooden doors.

    Typhoon Season Douglass, Keith 2000

  • The throne room of the blockhouse was a rough, frontier affair, a rude dais made of slabs of stone with a captain's chair from one of the ships serving as a throne.

    The Brothers' War Grubb, Jeff 1998

  •     The throne room of the blockhouse was a rough, frontier affair,

    The Brothers' War Grubb, Jeff 1998

  • Beside the blockhouse was the most amazing thing Derec had ever seen in his short memory.

    Suspicion Asimov, Isaac 1987

  • She held the door shut until thirteen women and children could get out of the house by the back door, and pass into a blockhouse, which is a kind of fort.

    Stories of American Life and Adventure Edward Eggleston 1869

  • The blockhouse will be the first spot assailed should there really be an attack; and it's no 'well provided for a siege, that must be allowed.

    Pathfinder; or, the inland sea James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • What: B.ilt by TCHA founder Dr. Richard B. Wetherill, the blockhouse is a 452-square foot replica of the French fort.

    unknown title 2009

  • Schenley Park with thoroughness, investigated several of the "inclines" which carried passengers from the river level to the top of the heights above, motored among the handsome residences and ended, on the way to the station, with a flying visit to the old blockhouse which is all that is left of Port Pitt.

    Ethel Morton's Enterprise 1903

  • [Footnote: The term "blockhouse" was loosely used, and was even sometimes applied to an entire fort when constructed of hewn logs, and not of palisades.

    A Half-Century of Conflict - Volume II Francis Parkman 1858

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