Word.ws English Dictionary

hornwork

hornwork noun: a type of fortification consisting of a pair of demi-bastions with a curtain wall connecting them and with two long sides directed upon the faces of the bastions, or ravelins of the inner fortifications, so as to be defended by them.

Noun

hornwork (plural hornworks)

  1. A type of fortification consisting of a pair of demi-bastions with a curtain wall connecting them and with two long sides directed upon the faces of the bastions, or ravelins of the inner fortifications, so as to be defended by them.
    • I think, quoth Corporal Trim, with humble submission to your Honour’s better judgment,——that these ravelins, bastions, curtins, and hornworks, make but a poor, contemptible, fiddle-faddle piece of work of it here upon paper, compared to what your Honour and I could make of it were we in the country...1659, Laurence Sterne, chapter XXX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Forms of hornwork

pluralhornworks

Origin of hornwork

From horn + work.

Questions about hornwork

What does hornwork mean?
Hornwork means a type of fortification consisting of a pair of demi-bastions with a curtain wall connecting them and with two long sides directed upon the faces of the bastions, or ravelins of the inner fortifications, so as to be defended by them.
What part of speech is hornwork?
Hornwork is a noun.
What is the plural of hornwork?
The plural of hornwork is hornworks.

Words near hornwork in the dictionary

  1. Hornton
  2. Hornung
  3. hornussen
  4. hornweed
  5. hornweeds
  6. hornwork
  7. hornworks
  8. hornworm
  9. hornworms
  10. hornwort
  11. hornworts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hornwork (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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