outpost
/ˈaʊtpəʊst
/noun
1A small military camp or position at some distance from the main army, used especially as a guard against surprise attack: troops in some outposts have surrendered...
- After the attack on the outpost, he kept the battalion moving.
- Another enemy attack captures an outpost on the approaches to Hill 1220.
- Police said the guerrillas disarmed paramilitary troops manning the outpost after a brief fire-fight.
2A remote part of a country or empire: a few scattered outposts along the west coast...
- You do not need to be reminded that it is no longer an English organization with headquarters on the banks of the Thames and outposts scattered about the Empire on which the sun was said never to set.
- Although the muscular Frenchman never fought ancient foes of the tricolour, the athletic Blanc peacefully presides over a diving operation at one of the remotest outposts of the French empire.
- The countdown has begun to a celebration of York's past as a vital outpost of a multi-national empire, with the city's second annual Roman Festival.
2.1An isolated or remote branch of something: the community is the last outpost of civilization in the far north...
- The island becomes an outpost of civilization in the midst of a strange culture.
- The restaurant is an outpost of Arts and Crafts-style elegance.
- They were outposts of Europe, transplanted bits of London or Manchester, or more recently of Athens or Rome.