besiege
Americanverb (used with object)
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besieges,
present (3rd person singular)
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besieged,
past participle, past
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besieging
present participle
verb
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to surround (a fortified area, esp a city) with military forces to bring about its surrender
-
to crowd round; hem in
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to overwhelm, as with requests or queries
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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besiegesimple
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besiegessimple
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have besiegedperfect
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has besiegedperfect
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am besiegingprogressive
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are besiegingprogressive
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is besiegingprogressive
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have been besiegingperfect progressive
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has been besiegingperfect progressive
Past
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besiegedsimple
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had besiegedperfect
-
was besiegingprogressive
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were besiegingprogressive
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had been besiegingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of besiege
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English bysegen; see be-, siege
Explanation
To besiege means to attack with an army, or to pester with many requests. When all your teachers ask you to hand in assignments on the same day, you can end up feeling besieged. The source of the word besiege in its military sense is the Latin word for "seat." When an army settles down in front of a fort or other site of attack, they are besieging it or taking a seat there. Picture them continually bombarding the fortress with arrows and cannon shot, and you've got the picture of the figurative sense of the word, "to pester with requests, etc." If you get a lot of spam in your e-mail, you are besieged with advertisements — and maybe also besieged with worries that you'll get a virus!
Vocabulary lists containing besiege
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Grade 9, List 1
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He brought with him perhaps 60,000 soldiers, along with numerous cannons, some of enormous size, to besiege the city; a newly constructed fleet patrolled the Bosporus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
One scene that stuck with me: As Union troops besiege Atlanta, shells are exploding, people flee in panic.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2025
The feeling of being in a great city as raging infernos besiege it but don’t quite subsume it?
From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2025
"If they besiege us here, where can we go then? How long will this suffering continue? We have been displaced about six or seven times," he said.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2024
Ned would surely have prevailed upon Robert to bring up his whole force, to encircle Stannis and besiege the besiegers.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
While stifling heat besieges the nation this weekend from the desert Southwest to the Northeast, coastal Californians can’t afford to be smug.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2022
In “The Shadow of the Vulture” Suleyman the Magnificent besieges Vienna, whose two champions are the carousing ex-knight Gottfried von Kalmbach and the indomitable woman-warrior known as Red Sonya.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 9, 2021
Widowhood besieges her, and “in the siege she has lost everything.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2020
Ebola’s embers still glow in West Africa, and yellow fever besieges Angola.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2016
The storm rises in Dar Nuba—The Baggara begin to raid—Khojur Kakum of Delen—Mek Omar besieges Delen—The slave guard deserts the Mission—The priests and nuns surrender—They are sent to the Mahdi.
From Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp 1882-1892 by Wingate, F. R.
He describes how leaving felt like a movie where someone boards the last helicopter flight out of a besieged city.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
When we parked up, I recall Wembley being besieged by ticket touts who were looking to sell.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
After word spread that a local attorney was starting a class action, residents said they were besieged by out-of-town lawyers competing aggressively for their business.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
In recent months, many residents have returned home to the island, besieged from June 2023 until March 2025, when the army recaptured the capital.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
He remembered, from his reading, descriptions of besieged medieval castles, and armies of men with bows sending so many arrows that the sky seemed thick with them.
From "Messenger" by Lois Lowry
This week’s ruling is the latest development in the long-running legal saga, which launched in the wake of resident complaints that the autonomous vehicle company’s round-the-clock operation was besieging them with noise, light and traffic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Meanwhile, the RSF has been besieging the capital of North Darfur, el-Fasher, which is defended by a coalition of Darfurian former rebels, known as the Joint Forces, allied with the army.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025
It is a besieging of the commercial breaks of historic proportions.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2024
The FBI was called in, military advisers were consulted and we had the nearly three-month spectacle of the U.S. government besieging a small, apocalyptic cult movement that was armed to the teeth.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2023
Because of this, he began to seek out new allies and to vacillate with France during the campaign the French undertook in the Kingdom of Naples against the Spaniards besieging Gaeta.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
