Definition of "bastile"

H' incounters Talgol, routs the Bear, / And takes the Fidler Prisoner; / Conveys him to enchanted Castle, / There shuts him fast in wooden Bastile.

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, canto II, page 28

Thither arriv'd th' advent'rous Knight / And bold Squire from their Steeds alight, / At th' outward Wall, near which [there] stands / A Bastile built t'imprison hands; / By strange enchantment made to fetter / The lesser parts, and free the greater. / For though the Body may creep through, / The Hands in Grate are fast enough.

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, canto II, page 57

―The devil it is! ſaid I—but I vvill go to then thouſand Baſtiles firſt— […]

1765, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXXV, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume VII, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], page 129

But Nigel was somewhat immured within the Bastile of his rank, as some philosopher, (Tom Paine, we think,) has happily enough expressed that sort of shyness which men of dignified situations are apt to be beset with, […]

1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., pages 55–56

Inſtead of forging Chains for Foreigners, / Baſtile thy Tutor: Grandeur All thy Aim?

1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, page 332

[W]hy if you don't ſcamper, you'll be baſtil'd, before you can ſay, "Killarney."

1791 (first performance), [Frederic] Reynolds, Notoriety: A Comedy, Dublin: […] P. Byrne, […], published 1792, Act IV, scene [i], page 43

All the doleful stories of prisoners of earlier or later ages, in the Bastile, including much sentimental balderdash, are drawled out by a very stupid and would-be effective writer, for the purpose of proving that the imprisonment of political offenders and captives by the North is precisely on a par with that of ‘Bastiling’ them, and that Abraham Lincoln is only a revival of the worst kings of France in an American form.

1862 October, “A Southern Review”, in [Charles Godfrey Leland], editor, The Continental Monthly. Devoted to Literature and National Policy, volume II, number IV, New York, N.Y.: John F[owler] Trow, […], page 467, column 1

I know that peaceable and unoffending citizens of my own State have been "bastiled" in different parts of the United States—"cut off from their family, their friends, and their every connection."

1863 January 8, Willard Saulsbury Sr., “Discharge of State Prisoners”, in John C. Rives, editor, The Congressional Globe: , page 233, column 2