bastille
n. countablen. a strong prison or fortress, especially one where people are kept by a government. It is named after a famous prison in Paris that was destroyed during the French Revolution.
n. a fortress used as a prison; a place of confinement. Often used metaphorically to describe any oppressive or heavily fortified institution.
The old castle served as a local bastille for centuries.
The protesters viewed the high-security government building as a modern bastille that needed to be dismantled.
In his political pamphlet, the author compared the state's censorship laws to a mental bastille that imprisoned the intellect of the citizenry.
Borrowed from French Bastille, from bastille (“fortress”): see further at the English entry bastille. The building was known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, and was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
When referring to the specific historical prison in Paris, it is capitalised as 'the Bastille'.