Advertisement

Gibraltar

1590s, ancient Calpe, captured 710 C.E. by Saracen leader Tariq, renamed Jebel el Tarik "the Mountain of Tarik," hence the English name. A British possession since 1704. Figurative of impregnability by 1856. Formerly also the name of a kind of rock-candy (1831).

Others are reading

Advertisement
Definitions of Gibraltar from WordNet

Gibraltar (n.)
location of a colony of the United Kingdom on a limestone promontory at the southern tip of Spain; strategically important because it can control the entrance of ships into the Mediterranean; one of the Pillars of Hercules;
Synonyms: Rock of Gibraltar / Calpe
From wordnet.princeton.edu