hill fortn.
a. A fort constructed on a hill.
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > fort or fortified town > [noun] > hill-fort
rath1434
dun1703
hill fort1833
royalty1893
1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle's Log xxi, in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May 756/1 A sudden flash and a jet of white smoke puffed out from the hill-fort above the town.
1862 H. Beveridge Comprehensive Hist. India III. vii. iii. 84 The hill-fort of Wusota.
b. esp. A hill-top fortification of prehistoric age.
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1851 D. Wilson Archæol. & Prehistoric Ann. Scotl. iii. iii. 412 The simple circular hill-forts..wherein we trace the mere rudimentary efforts of a people in the infancy of the arts.
1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Ess. 1st Ser. viii. 219 That class of towns which, out of Gaulish hill-forts grew into Roman and mediæval cities.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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