1. To add strength to; to strengthen; to confirm; to furnish with power to resist attack.
Timidity was fortified by pride.
Gibbon.
Pride came to the aid of fancy, and both combined to fortify his resolution.
Sir W. Scott. 2. To strengthen and secure by forts or batteries, or by surrounding with a wall or ditch or other military
works; to render defensible against an attack by hostile forces.
Fortify
(For"ti*fy), v. i. To raise defensive works. Milton.
Fortilage
(For"ti*lage) n. [Cf. Fortalice.] A little fort; a blockhouse. [Obs.] Spenser.
Fortin
(Fort"in) n. [F. See Fort, n.] A little fort; a fortlet. [Obs.]
Fortissimo
(||For*tis"si*mo) adv. [It., superl. of forte, adv. See Forte, adv.] (Mus.) Very loud; with the
utmost strength or loudness.
Fortition
(For*ti"tion) n. [See Fortuitous.] Casual choice; fortuitous selection; hazard. [R.]
No mode of election operating in the spirit of fortition or rotation can be generally good.
Burke. Fortitude
(For"ti*tude) n. [L. fortitudo, fr. fortis strong. See Fort.]
1. Power to resist attack; strength; firmness. [Obs.]
The fortitude of the place is best known to you.
Shak. 2. That strength or firmness of mind which enables a person to encounter danger with coolness and
courage, or to bear pain or adversity without murmuring, depression, or despondency; passive courage; resolute
endurance; firmness in confronting or bearing up against danger or enduring trouble.
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude.
Milton.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
Locke. Syn. — Courage; resolution; resoluteness; endurance; bravery. See Courage, and Heroism.
Fortitudinous
(For`ti*tu"di*nous) a. Having fortitude; courageous. [R.] Gibbon.
Fortlet
(Fort"let) n. A little fort. [R.] Bailey.
Fortnight
(Fort"night`) n. [Contr. fr. fourteen nights, our ancestors reckoning time by nights and winters; so,
also, seven nights, sennight, a week.] The space of fourteen days; two weeks.
Fortnightly
(Fort"night`ly) a. Occurring or appearing once in a fortnight; as, a fortnightly meeting of a
club; a fortnightly magazine, or other publication. — adv. Once in a fortnight; at intervals of a fortnight.
Fortread
(For*tread") v. t. To tread down; to trample upon. [Obs.]
In hell shall they be all fortroden of devils.
Chaucer. Fortress
(For"tress) n.; pl. Fortresses [F. forteresse, OF. forteresce, fortelesce, LL. foralitia, fr. L.
fortis strong. See Fort, and cf. Fortalice.] A fortified place; a large and permanent fortification, sometimes
including a town; a fort; a castle; a stronghold; a place of defense or security.
