fortify

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
It was just one of those places that the ancients loved to fortify, almost insular and easily defensible.

View all »
Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. transitive verb To make strong, as:
  2. transitive verb To strengthen and secure (a position) with fortifications.
  3. transitive verb To reinforce by adding material.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Their orders explicitly indicated Bunker Hill as the one to fortify, but, “though this was the most commanding and most defensible position, it was too far from the enemy to annoy their army and shipping.” Situated nearer the British general position was another elevation, Breed's Hill; but this was only sixty-two feet in height, as compared with Bunker Hill's one hundred and ten. —  Old Put The Patriot
  • Fortify, fortify, and never let them in again,” he urged a friend at home. —  John Adams by David McCullough
  • Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. —  Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2
  • In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity."
  • We continue to fortify, about our why pay more value proposition. —  Retail Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha
 

Tags

fortify hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 152 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same contextWord Family

fortify:   fortified
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English fortifien, from Old French fortifier, from Late Latin fortificāre, from Latin fortis, strong; see bhergh-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French fortifier = Provencal Spanish Portuguese fortificar = Italian fortificare, from Late Latin fortificare, strengthen, fortify, from Latin fortis, strong, + facere, make; see fort and -fy.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ˈfɔrtɪfai/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a month.

Recently looked up

Viator · Meritorious · consanguinity · cornbread · plaintain

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

procrastinate · its not like im ugly people tell me im pretty · be careful! the razor is razor-sharp! · minty-fresh death threat · please stop sucking the monkeybread