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Blockhouse   Listen
noun
Blockhouse  n.  
1.
(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.
2.
A house of squared logs. (West. & South. U. S.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Blockhouse" Quotes from Famous Books



... blockhouse, awaiting the moment when the symbol of freedom should rise like a star over old Vincennes the crowd had picturesquely broken into scattered groups. Alice entered through a rent in the stockade, as that happened to be a shorter route than through the ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson

... present time are the great pioneers, the discoverers, the explorers of this new world. Instead of blazing our trail through a wilderness of trees we dredge our way through a wilderness of waters; instead of a stockade around a blockhouse to protect us against wild beasts and wilder Indian foes, we have but a thin plank between us and destruction; instead of a few wolves and mountain-lions to prey upon the few head of stock we might raise, we have thousands ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... sent his nephew Antonio de Noronha, accompanied by Timoja, to sound the channel. A light vessel of easy draught of water which led the way gave chase to a brigantine belonging to the Moors, which took shelter under protection of a fort or blockhouse, erected for protecting the entrance of the harbour, which was well provided with artillery and garrisoned by 400 men, commanded by Yazu Gorji, a valiant Turk. Seeing the other vessel in chase, Noronha pressed after him; and though the fort seemed ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... were attacked by Commodore Hazlewood and silenced; but the following night a detachment crossed over Webb's Ferry into Province Island, and constructed a slight work opposite Fort Mifflin, within two musket shots of the blockhouse, from which they were enabled to throw shot and shells into the barracks. When daylight discovered this work three galleys and a floating battery were ordered to attack it and the garrison surrendered. While the boats were bringing off the prisoners, a large ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing

... Bloemfontein-Ladybrand line of posts would be an effectual barrier to De Wet's retreat, had waited to pull his straggling columns together. De Wet, reinforced by a commando under Michael Prinsloo, who had been with him in his first Transvaal incursion when Steyn was put over the border, rushed at the blockhouse line and again cut it at Springhaan's Nek, for although it had been attended to recently, there was an aneurism in it which yielded at the critical moment, and on December 14 De Wet passed freely through the lesion. He arrived ...
— A Handbook of the Boer War • Gale and Polden, Limited

... land in the same place as before and set to work to provision the blockhouse. All three made the first journey, heavily laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to guard them—one man, to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets—Hunter and I returned to the jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves once more. So we proceeded, without pausing to take breath, ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson

... she turned towards the rocks, and after another interval of painful toil they found themselves in a sort of rocky chamber, a natural blockhouse, of which the sheer cliff formed one wall and boulders of varying height ...
— Prisoners of Hope - A Tale of Colonial Virginia • Mary Johnston

... you a long rope," said the Captain. "But that can't change a man's convictions. I know the Author respects me; I feel it in my bones: when you and I had that talk at the blockhouse door, who do you think he ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson

... sides, inclined at an angle of about 45 deg., as indicated in Figs. 13 and 14. This form was much used in South Africa for connecting lines between blockhouses. When used in this way the lines of fence may be 300 to 600 yds. long, in plan like a worm fence, with the blockhouse at the reentrant angles. Fixed rests for rifles, giving them the proper aim to enfilade the fence, were prepared at the blockhouses for use ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss

... short work of my meal, for the 'assembly' just then sounded; and, after our usual parade again on deck, according to the routine, a part of our division went ashore to a large field between Blockhouse Fort and Haslar on the Gosport side of the water, belonging to the Saint Vincent, and which is used for drilling the boys in marching and ...
— Young Tom Bowling - The Boys of the British Navy • J.C. Hutcheson

... which was within sight of Wareville, and caught fish. Nobody except the men, who were always armed, and who knew how to take care of themselves, was allowed to go more than a mile from the palisade, but Henry was trusted as far as the river; then the watchman in the lookout on top of the highest blockhouse could see him or any who might come, and ...
— The Young Trailers - A Story of Early Kentucky • Joseph A. Altsheler

... western end of the island, a little beyond Yarmouth; whence a vessel conveyed them, over the little strip of intervening sea, to Hurst Castle that same afternoon (Dec. 1). The so-called Castle was a strong, solitary, stone blockhouse, which had been built, in the time of Henry VIII., at the extremity of a long narrow spit of sand and shingle projecting from the Hampshire coast towards the Isle of Wight. It was a rather dismal place; and the King's heart sank as he entered ...
— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... emigrants whilst on their way to Oregon against the attacks of the Indian tribes occupying the country through which they pass, I recommend that a suitable number of stockades and blockhouse forts be erected along the usual route between our frontier settlements on the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and that an adequate force of mounted riflemen be raised to guard and protect them on their journey. The immediate adoption of these ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... had lagged far behind, and now, as if to cap his fantastic performances, had dismounted and was descending the river-bank to a place where a large washing had been spread upon the stones to dry. He was quite exposed, and a spiteful crackle from the nearest blockhouse showed that the Spaniards were determined to bring him down. Mauser bullets ricocheted among the rocks—even from this distance their sharp explosions were audible—others broke the surface of the stream into little geysers, as if a ...
— Rainbow's End • Rex Beach

... are come! the Rangers are come!" was the word eagerly passed from mouth to mouth; and before the newcomers could make any explanation, they found themselves pushed into a fair-sized building, some thing in the form of a temporary blockhouse, and confronted with the Colonel himself, who received them ...
— French and English - A Story of the Struggle in America • Evelyn Everett-Green

... old, yet in good repair. It belongs to the King of Denmark, as Duke of Holstein, and he keeps a garrison there at the mouth of a river running into the Elbe, like that of Stadt. The late King of Denmark built there a blockhouse in the great river upon piles, to the end he might command the ships passing that way, but the Elbe being there above a league in breadth, the ships may well pass ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke



Words linked to "Blockhouse" :   fastness, stronghold



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