What does tenaille mean?

Definitions for tenaille
tenaille

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word tenaille.


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Wikipedia

  1. Tenaille

    A tenaille (archaic tenalia) is an advanced defensive-work, in front of the main defences of a fortress, which takes its name from resemblance, real or imaginary, to the lip of a pair of pincers. It is "from French, literally: tongs, from Late Latin tenācula, pl of tenaculum".In a letter to John Bradshaw, President of the Council of State in London, Oliver Cromwell writing from Dublin on 16 September 1649 described one such tenaille that played a significant part during the storming of Drogheda. There was a Tenalia to flanker the south Wall of the Town, between Duleek Gate and the corner Tower before mentioned;—which our men entered, wherein they found some forty or fifty of the Enemy which they put to the sword. And this 'Tenalia' they held: but it being without the Wall, and the sally-port through the Wall into that Tenalia being choked up with some of the Enemy which were killed in it, it proved of no use for an entrance into the Town that way. — Tenaille were a development in fortification formalised by Vauban, among others. A postern gate was placed low down in the curtain wall close to the centre in order to allow the defenders to access the ditches that front the wall. To protect the postern, an outwork, originally V-shaped, was placed in front of the gate, providing an area where the defenders could leave the fortification without being seen or directly shot at. A simple tenaille is shown in the top image to the right; it is the chevron between the two corner bastions. The design also evolved a version in which the tenaille possesses projections at each end, as seen in the middle image to the right. The name was also used for some other V-shaped parts of outworks; the bottom-most image, a priest's cap, has two tenailles. Also shown is another approach to protect a gate; the roughly triangular outwork seen in the middle of the bottom drawing is a ravelin.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Tenaillenoun

    an outwork in the main ditch, in front of the curtain, between two bastions. See Illust. of Ravelin

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Tenaille

    te-nāl′, n. (fort.) an outwork in the main ditch immediately in front of the curtain, of great use for protecting the ditch, covering the postern from the enemy's view, &c.—n. Tenaillon (te-nal′yon), a work to strengthen the side of a small ravelin, and to support the shoulder of the bastion. [Fr.,—L. tenaculum, a holder—tenēre, to hold.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. tenaille

    In fortification, a long low outwork traced on the inward prolongation of the faces of the bastions. It covers the curtain, and conveniently defends the interior of the ravelin and its redoubt.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. tenaille

    In fortification, is a low work, constructed in the main ditch, upon the lines of defense, between the bastions, before the curtain, composed of two faces, and sometimes of two flanks and a small curtain.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of tenaille in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of tenaille in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

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"tenaille." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/tenaille>.

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