fortification

Borrowed from Middle French fortification, from Late Latin fortificatio, fortificationem, from fortifico, from Latin fortis.

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

fortification (countable and uncountable, plural fortifications)

1. The act of fortifying; the art or science of fortifying places to strengthen defence against an enemy.
2. That which fortifies; especially, a work or works erected to defend a place against attack; a fortified place; a fortress; a fort; a castle.
   • 1881, John Kirby Hedges, The history of Wallingford‎, volume 1, page 170:

     Kenett states that the military works still known by the name of Tadmarten Camp and Hook-Norton Barrow were cast up at this time ; the former, large and round, is judged to be a fortification of the Danes, and the latter, being smaller and rather a quinquangle than a square, of the Saxons.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0088:

     “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […] ”

3. An increase in effectiveness, as by adding ingredients.
   • 1979, Kiplinger's Personal Finance (volume 33, number 7, July 1979, page 47)

     Compare the nutrition information label of a regular ready-to-eat fortified cereal with that of a presweetened brand and you'll note that, although the sweetened one's sugar content is higher, the fortification is virtually identical.

4. A jagged pattern sometimes seen during an attack of migraine.

Borrowed from Late Latin fortificatio, fortificationem, from fortifico, from Latin fortis.

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fortification f (plural fortifications)

1. fortification (all meanings)

• fortifier

• “fortification” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).