Dictionary
Find
in
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Translations

Click to move up the list of words
castigate
Castile
Castile soap
Castilian
casting
casting couch
casting director
casting vote
castle
Castle Peak
Castlebar
castled
Castlereagh
castoff
Castor
castor (1)
castor (2)
Click to move down the list of words
Print Preview
See pronunciation key
Search for "castle" in all of MSN Encarta
E-mail this entry
Blog about this entry on MSN Spaces
Download the MSN Encarta Right-Click Dictionary

castle

cas·tle [ káss'l ]


noun  (plural cas·tles)
Definition:
 
1. fortress: a large fortified building or complex of buildings, usually with tall solid walls, battlements, and a permanent garrison, built especially during the Middle Ages

2. fortified house: especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, a large magnificent house built to resemble a fortified castle of the past

3. private refuge: the building, property, or place to which somebody, especially the owner, turns for privacy or refuge

4. chess 
Same as  rook2




transitive and intransitive verb  (past and past participle cas·tled, present participle cas·tling, 3rd person present singular cas·tles)
Definition:
 
chess move king and rook: in chess, to move the king two squares to the left or right and move the nearest rook over the king to the adjacent square on the opposite side

[Pre-12th century. < Latin castellum "fortified village" < castrum "fortified place"]

build castles in the air or in Spain to have dreams or plans that are extremely unlikely to be realized

Advertisement

Also on Encarta
Englishtown: Learn English online
Our Partners
Also on MSN
Encarta Message Boards (© Rubberball/Jupiterimages)
MSN Shopping
Encarta RSS Feeds
© 2008 Microsoft