Bastion    (pronounced bas-chin or bas-tee-un) noun


Definition

1. a fortified area or position. 2. a stronghold; something dominated by or marked by a particular feature, attribute, quality, characteristic, etc.

Main Example

  • Revelations of inequity and unethical dealings at several mutual fund companies have shocked and dismayed millions of investors who had come to regard mutual funds as the last bastion of integrity and fair play in the world of investing.

    Workplace Examples

  • Every department except for ours has upgraded to Windows XP. Looks like we are the company's last bastion of Windows 98.

  • Yes, management actively recruits and promotes women, yet females still hold very few supervisory positions here. I'm afraid our company will remain pretty much a male-dominated bastion for many more years.

    Other Examples

  • Northern California's Silicon Valley, a bastion of high technology and innovation

  • a town that is regarded as a Republican bastion because most of its people consistently vote for that party

  • the 2001 standoff by six armed teenagers in the town of Sagle, Idaho, underscoring what north Idaho has become: a bastion of those with a strong distrust of the government

  • in a PBS interview, actress Jodie Foster lamenting the scarcity of women directors and how film directing is still a male bastion

    © 2004 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Frisson
    Lacerating
    Exalted and Exaltation
    Albatross
    Revulsion
    Draconian
    Implacable

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