Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The fortified main tower of a castle; a keep.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The inner tower, keep, or stronghold of a castle. See cut under
castle .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The chief tower, also called the
keep ; a massive tower in ancient castles, forming the strongest part of the fortifications. SeeIllust. ofcastle .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
fortified tower of amotte or earlycastle ; akeep .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the main tower within the walls of a medieval castle or fortress
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It held meetings in our big vault, which they called the donjon keep, and, naturally, when one of them was going on, boys were scarcer around the office than hen's teeth.
Old Gorgon Graham Lorimer, George H 1903
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Although the donjon was a fundamental element of castle design from Norman times, Greenwich had no fortifications, no moat, and no visible sense of being a castle.
The Dragon’s Trail Joanna Pitman 2006
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Although the donjon was a fundamental element of castle design from Norman times, Greenwich had no fortifications, no moat, and no visible sense of being a castle.
The Dragon’s Trail Joanna Pitman 2006
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Although the donjon was a fundamental element of castle design from Norman times, Greenwich had no fortifications, no moat, and no visible sense of being a castle.
The Dragon’s Trail Joanna Pitman 2006
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Although the donjon was a fundamental element of castle design from Norman times, Greenwich had no fortifications, no moat, and no visible sense of being a castle.
The Dragon’s Trail Joanna Pitman 2006
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After passing the donjon, which is situated at the extreme end of the left wing, we went to the back of the chateau.
Mystère de la chambre jaune. English Gaston Leroux 1897
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Not far from the donjon is the Decorated church of Saint Lawrence, where the usual late Gothic dies off into _Renaissance_ at the west end.
Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine Edward Augustus Freeman 1857
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The central tower, commonly called the donjon, was the castle's last line of defense.
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010
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It had a "donjon," or keep, which was generally occupied by the baron as
Comic History of England Bill Nye 1873
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"donjon" of great antiquity, crenelated, with towers at each corner and the whole construction forming an admirable specimen of Hispano-Flemish architecture.
Vanished towers and chimes of Flanders George Wharton Edwards 1904
chained_bear commented on the word donjon
A keep or great tower; the main citadel of a castle.
August 25, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word donjon
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for the phrase "What does the difference amount to?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 22, 2013