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castle

Pronunciation: /ˈkɑːs(ə)l/
Translate castle | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of castle

noun

  • a large building, typically of the medieval period, fortified against attack with thick walls, battlements, towers, and often a moat: Edinburgh Castle the crumbling stonework of a ruined castle
  • a magnificent and imposing old mansion: [in names]:Castle Howard
  • Chess, informalold-fashioned term for rook2.

verb

[no object] (often as noun castling) Chess
  • make a special move (no more than once in a game by each player) in which the king is transferred from its original square two squares along the back rank towards a rook on its corner square which is then transferred to the square passed over by the king.
  • [with object] move (the king) by castling.

Phrases

castles in the air (or in Spain)

visionary unattainable schemes; daydreams:my father built castles in the air about owning a boat

Derivatives

castled

adjective ( archaic)

Origin:

late Old English: from Anglo-Norman French and Old Northern French castel, from Latin castellum, diminutive of castrum 'fort'

castle in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of castle in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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