ˈbaschən also -stēən sometimes -styən or schēən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French, from bastille fortress — more at bastille
1. : a projecting part of a fortification
the old fort with a bastion at each of its five corners
2. : a fortified area or position
planes disrupted surface communications and bombed island bastions
3. : something that is considered a stronghold : bulwark , safeguard
one of the main bastions of order in a world so badly in need of them — D.W.Brogan
responsible for weakening the final and greatest bastion of civil liberty — R.K.Carr
4. : a pronounced salient of rock projecting from the wall of a glaciated valley and most commonly formed where a tributary joins a trunk glacier