castle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the piece in chess that can move any number of unoccupied squares in a direction parallel to the sides of the chessboard

   They took my castle in the third move of our game.

2. 2
   noun

   A close helmet.

   The castle was perhaps a figurative name for a close headpiece deduced from its enclosing and defending the head, as a castle did the whole body; or a corruption from the Old French word casquetel, a small or light helmet.

3. 3
   noun

   The wicket.

   Nay, he was quite an adept, and was very effective as a change bowler, for in no time he demolished the castle of any batsman.

4. 4
   verb

   To house or keep in a castle.

   ...to encastle, to Castle.

5. 5
   verb

   To protect or separate in a similar way.

   Castle me in the armes of thy everlasting strength.

6. 6
   verb

   To move the king 2 squares right or left and, in the same turn, the nearest rook to the far side of the king. The move now has special rules: the king cannot be in, go through, or end in check; the squares between the king and rook must be vacant; and neither piece may have been moved before castling.

   He [i.e., the king] may change (or Castle) with this Rooke, that is, he may goe two draughts at once towards this Rooke... causing the Rooke to stand next to him on either side.

7. 7
   verb

   To bowl a batsman with a full-length ball or yorker such that the stumps are knocked over.

   And the 23-year-old brought the crowd to their feet when he castled Gayle's stumps, signalling the direction of the pavilion to his friend for good measure.

8. 8
   noun

   interchanging the positions of the king and a rook

Etymology

From Middle English castle, castel, from late Old English castel, castell (“a town, village”), borrowed from Late Latin castellum (“small camp, fort”), diminutive of Latin castrum (“camp, fort, citadel, stronghold”). Doublet of cashel, castell, castellum, and château. Parallel borrowings (from Late Latin or Old French) are Scots castel, castell (“castle”), West Frisian kastiel (“castle”), Dutch kasteel (“castle”), German Kastell (“castle”), Danish kastel (“citadel”), Swedish kastell (“citadel”), Icelandic kastali (“castle”), Welsh castell. The late Old English word was borrowed from biblical L…