Definition of "presidio" [pre•si•di•o]

• A garrison, especially a fortress of the kind established in the southwest United States by the Spanish to protect their holdings and missions. (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.

• "(On camera): Miss Bowles lives here in one of San Francisco's most prestigious neighborhoods called presidio heights."
• "Near each of the earlier coast missions there was also founded a military station called a presidio, a name borrowed from the Roman presidium."
• "The method of the authorities was to establish a military post, called a presidio, at some convenient point, from which protection would be extended to several missions."