Crossword clues for battlement
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Battlement \Bat"tle*ment\ (-ment), n. [OE. batelment; cf. OF. bataillement combat, fr. batailler, also OF. bastillier, bateillier, to fortify. Cf. Battle, n., Bastile, Bastion.] (Arch.)
One of the solid upright parts of a parapet in ancient fortifications.
pl. 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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 14c., from Old French bataillement, earlier bastillement "fortification," from bastillier "to fortify, to equip with battlements," from bastille "fortress, tower" (see bastion). The raised parts are cops or merlons; the indentations are embrasures or crenelles.
Wiktionary
n. 1 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 Any high wall for defense.
WordNet
n. a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns [syn: crenelation, crenellation]
Gazetteer
Wikipedia
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which rectangular gaps or indentations occur at intervals to allow for the discharge of arrows or other missiles from within the defences. These gaps are termed " crenels" (also known as carnels, embrasures, or wheelers), and the act of adding crenels to a previously unbroken parapet is termed crenellation. Thus, a defensive building might be designed and built with battlements, or a manor house might be fortified by adding battlements, where no parapet previously existed, or cutting crenellations into its existing parapet wall. The solid widths between the crenels are called merlons (also cops or kneelers). A wall with battlements is said to be crenelated or embattled. Battlements on walls have protected walkways ( chemin de ronde) behind them. On tower or building tops, the (often flat) roof is used as the protected fighting platform.
Usage examples of "battlement".
Pillar, a military edifice situated within two square miles of bronze-faced outer battlements, and capable of accommodating seventeen jerds, somewhere in the region of seventeen thousand men.
Thus the ridges of the two roofs are practically level, while the battlement of the transept is only on a level with the point at which the arches of the clerestory in the nave spring.
With that Ameronis threw back the coverlet and strode out onto the bartizan and mounted a flight of steps to the battlements.
Once more their passes were checked and now they were escorted with their flare-carrying porters through the donjon main gate, along a passage that meandered, mazelike, between high, battlemented stone walls to the next gate that led to the moat and the innermost wooden bridge.
The top of the shaft was battlemented, and she caught splashes of color between the teeth of the stone scarps, as if flowers were massed there and spilling blossoms against the whiteness of the tower.
Twenty feet above them, an inner battlemented wall offered excellent opportunities for the inhabitants of the castle to throw things down at visitors who, after admission, turned out to be undesired.
Here and there large dunes of goldencoloured sand rose, some straight as city walls, some curved like seats in an amphitheatre, others indented, crenellated like battlements, undulating in beastlike shapes.
Known as a hoarding or brattice, this structure provided a roof over the battlements to protect defenders from missiles, and often projected outwards from the walls to allow defenders to drop missiles on attackers below.
I reckoned anywhere trees grew I could scramble up, so I followed ramps of trees winding up through brecciated battlements, ducking under the branches.
Prince Brian stood looking out from the battlement at the moonlit meadow below, while Brewster sat smoking his pipe.
And in that moment, the moonlight faded in the early light of dawn and Brewster did a double take as a golden chamberpot came clattering down onto the stones of the battlement.
Mick took the pot and Brewster ran upstairs to his bedroom, just below the battlement of the tower.
I had held the matrosses of the Citadel in some contempt, I seemed to hear the long rattle of the call to parade, and the bright challenge the trumpets sent from the battlements.
We have now but to make a rush up these winding steps, and methinks we shall find ourselves on the battlements.
The front was, as I had once seen it in a dream, but a well-like wall, very high and very fragile-looking, perforated with paneless windows: no roof, no battlements, no chimneys -- all had crashed in.