A stockade is a defensive wall made of tall wooden posts or logs driven upright into the ground, standing side by side like a fence of tree trunks. Early American settlers built stockades around their communities for protection, creating a barrier that was difficult to climb or break through. Inside the stockade, people could feel safer from attacks while going about their daily work.

The posts in a stockade typically had sharpened tops pointing outward, making them even harder to scale. Fort walls in colonial America were often stockades, built quickly from available timber. In the Old West, military outposts surrounded themselves with stockades to defend against raids. Unlike stone walls that took years to build, a group of determined people could construct a stockade in weeks using axes and logs.

The word can also mean a military prison, especially one enclosed by a wooden fence. Soldiers who broke rules might be confined in the stockade.