Definition of "barbette" [bar•bette]

• A platform or mound of earth within a fort from which guns are fired over the parapet. (noun)
• An armored protective cylinder around a revolving gun turret on a warship. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The big naval guns, brought from the empty ships in the basin, were mounted en barbette, meaning there were not enough embrasures to protect them so the weapons were firing directly over the wall's parapet and British gunner officers hungrily watched those pieces through their telescopes."
• "Germans, had a "barbette" top, which looked like the shell of a tortoise, fitted down over the chassis."
• "She carries an obsolete "barbette" conning tower -- a six-foot affair with railed platform forward -- and our warning beam plays on the top of it as a policeman's lantern flashes on the area sneak."