Forms: 4–5 forteresse, Sc. fortrace, fortrass, 4 forceress (? read fort-), 5–7 fortresse, 6 fortres, 4– fortress. [a. OF. forteresse strength, a strong place, f. fort strong; a variant of, or parallel formation with, fortelesce FORTALICE.]
1. A military stronghold, fortified place; in mod. use chiefly one capable of receiving a large force; often applied to a strongly fortified town regarded from a military point of view.
13[?]. K. Alis., 2667.
| Wel they warden gatis alle, | |
| The fortresses and the walle. |
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 7143.
| When he had alle þys forceresses, | |
| Wyþ cites, tounes, & alle richesses, | |
| Ȝyt he þoughte on oþer wyse | |
| To contreoue a fals queyntyse. |
c. 1450. Merlin, 192. Kynge Arthur … hadde wele garnysshed alle the forteresses of hys londe.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., Ep. A j. Diuers stronge Castels and Fortresses were peaceablye geuen vp into the handes of Pirrhus.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 759. There was a strong Fortress raised close by the City, which might serve instead of a Castle, though it had not the name of one.
1769. W. Robertson, Chas. V., II. VI. 428. Those in garrison at Goletta threatened to give up that important fortress to Barbarossa.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 45. Thick walls and turrets at the angles gave the whole the aspect and the reality of a fortress—a little citadel in the heart of the city.
transf. and fig. 1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 104. The hertis of good peple ben the castell & forterescis of secretes.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 757. Affection towardes hym, had bene to his noble children … a merveilous fortresse and sure armor.
1603. R. Niccols, Fun. Orat. Q. Eliz. Her countrie was the fortresse of banisht men.
1738. Wesley, Psalms xviii. 1.
| The Truth determined to obey, | |
| Continuing steadfast in the Word, | |
| I in my rock and fortress stay, | |
| (My rock and fortress is the Lord). |
2. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as fortress-company, -engineer; b. appositive, as fortress-chapel, -rock, -tomb; c. instrumental, as fortress-guarded adj.
1838. Miss Pardoe, River & Desert, II. 52. The bleak, arid, tree-denuded rock, now crowned with the *fortress-chapel of Nôtre-Dame-de-la-Garde.
1893. Daily News, 24 Jan., 5/7. A garrison company of artillery, a *fortress company of engineers.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 4 Oct., 4/3. A company of *fortress engineers.
1887. Pall Mall G., 24 Jan., 1/2. Across the *fortress-guarded frontier.
1838. Miss Pardoe, River & Desert, I. 218. By some extraordinary contatenation of ideas, he skipped from the abdication of Charles X., to our *fortress-rock of Gibraltar.
1835. Willis, Pencillings (1836), I. xii. 90. I crossed the Tiber at the *fortress-tomb of Adrian.
