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Webster 1913 Edition
Circumvallation
Cirˊcum-val-la′tion
,Noun.
(Mil.)
(a)
The act of surrounding with a wall or rampart.
(b)
A line of field works made around a besieged place and the besieging army, to protect the camp of the besiegers against the attack of an enemy from without.
Webster 1828 Edition
Circumvallation
CIRCUMVALLATION
, n.1.
In the art of war, a surrounding with a wall or rampart; also, a wall, rampart, or parapet with a trench, surrounding the camp of a besieging army, to prevent desertion, and guard the army against any attempt of an enemy to relieve the place besieged.2.
The rampart, or fortification surrounding a besieged place.[Note. This word, from the Latin, vallo, or vallum, vallus, denotes properly the wall or rampart thrown up; but as the rampart is formed by entrenching, and the trench makes a part of the fortification, the word is applied to both. See Eng. Wall.]
Definition 2024
circumvallation
circumvallation
English
Noun
circumvallation (plural circumvallations)
- A rampart or other defensive entrenchment.
- 1761, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, vol. 3, Penguin 2003, p. 201:
- [...] and in a word, would intrench and fortify them round with as many circumvallations and breast-works, as my uncle Toby would a citadel.
- 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:
- The Saxon architect had exhausted his art in rendering the main keep defensible, and there was no other circumvallation than a rude barrier of palisades.
- 1761, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, vol. 3, Penguin 2003, p. 201:
Translations
rampart
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