Definition of "palisade" [pal•i•sade]

• A fence of pales forming a defense barrier or fortification. (noun)
• One of the pales of such a fence. (noun)
• A line of lofty steep cliffs, usually along a river. (noun)
• To equip or fortify with palisades or a palisade. (verb-transitive)

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 palisade is an open structure which would not have been defensive and was too high to be practical for controlling livestock."
• "If there were guards posted in the watchtower, he could not see them from the covered porch because although the palisade was a simple pole structure, the gate itself had a doubled entry-way: You had to enter through the outer gate into a small, confined area, where you waited for the inner gate to be opened to admit you to the town."
• "Without the palisade was a space of waste land, marsh and thicket, tapering to the narrow strip of sand and scrub joining the peninsula to the forest, and here and there upon this waste ground rose a mean house, dwelt in by the poorer sort."