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To furnish with a fortress or with fortresses; to guard; to fortify. Shak.

A woman who comforts. To be your comfortress, and to preserve you. B. Jonson.

A fortress; a fortification for defense. [Obs.] Bailey.

A commander of a castle or fortress among the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Moors.

A fortress; also, a royal palace. Prescott.

e advanced works, trenches, or covered roads made by besiegers in their advances toward a fortress or military post.

The space immediately within the outer wall of a castle or fortress. [Obs.]

An opening in the wall of a fortress, through which missiles were discharged upon an enemy.

A fortress or fortified town, on the frontier of a country, commanding an avenue of approach.

"The Bastille", formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.

To shut up, as a town or fortress, by investing it with troops or vessels or war for the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the introduction of supplies. See note under Blockade, n. "Blockaded the place by sea." Gilpin.

An attack upon a fortress or fortified town, with shells, hot shot, rockets, etc.; the act of throwing bombs and shot into a town or fortified place.

Originally, one appointed to the command of a burg (fortress or castle); but the title afterward became hereditary, with a domain attached.

To surrender or transfer, as an army or a fortress, on certain conditions. [R.]

surprise, or stratagem; to overcome and hold; to secure by effort. Her heart is like some fortress that has been captured. W. Ivring.

A fortified residence, especially that of a prince or nobleman; a fortress. The house of every one is to him castle and fortress, as well for his defense againts injury and violence, as for his repose. Coke. Our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scorn. Shak.

To yield or surrender; to give up; to resign; as, to cede a fortress, a province, or country, to another nation, by treaty. The people must cede to the government some of their natural rights. Jay.

A castle or a fortress in France.

A fortress in or near a fortified city, commanding the city and fortifications, and intended as a final point of defense. Syn. - Stronghold. See Fortress.

An embrasure or indentation in a battlement; a loophole in a fortress; an indentation; a notch. See Merlon, and Illust. of Battlement.