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Which ancient city endured a siege in Homer's Iliad?

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siege

American  

[seej] / sidʒ /

noun

• sieges
  plural

1. the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible.

2. any prolonged or persistent effort to overcome resistance.

3. a series of illnesses, troubles, or annoyances besetting a person or group.

   a siege of head colds.

4. a prolonged period of trouble or annoyance.

5. Ornithology. Also

   1. a flock of herons.

   2. the station of a heron at prey.

6. the shelf or floor of a glassmaking furnace on which the glass pots are set.

7. Obsolete.

   1. a seat, especially one used by a person of distinction, as a throne.

   2. station as to rank or class.

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verb (used with object)

sieged, sieging

1. to assail or assault; besiege.

idioms

1. lay siege to, to besiege.

   The army laid siege to the city for over a month.

siege British  

/ siːdʒ /

noun

1. 1. the offensive operations carried out to capture a fortified place by surrounding it, severing its communications and supply lines, and deploying weapons against it

   2. ( as modifier )

      siege warfare

2. a persistent attempt to gain something

3. a long tedious period, as of illness, etc

4. obsolete a seat or throne

5. to besiege

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verb

1. (tr) to besiege or assail

Synonym Usage

Siege, blockade are terms for prevention of free movement to or from a place during wartime. Siege implies surrounding a city and cutting off its communications, and usually includes direct assaults on its defenses. Blockade is applied more often to naval operations that block all commerce, especially to cut off food and other supplies from defenders.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• siegeable
  adjective
• unsieged
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sieges
  plural

Etymology

Origin of siege

First recorded in 1175–1225; (noun) Middle English sege, from Old French: “seat,” noun derivative of siegier, from unattested Vulgar Latin sedicāre “to set,” derivative of Latin sedēre “to sit” ( see sit ¹); (verb) Middle English segen, derivative of the noun

Explanation

Your city is under siege if it is surrounded on all sides by an opposing force on attack. Think of a castle surrounded by a legion of armed knights. Like many military words, siege can be used metaphorically. If you start getting thousands of e-mail messages trying to sell you canned meat, you might feel like you're under a siege of spam selling spam. In this case, you have been besieged by spam. And even more unfortunately, if you are having a siege of bad luck, you have been besieged by bad luck.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

siege sieges sieged sieging

At the time, rebel-held areas in Homs were under siege by the government, and residents were struggling to access food and medicine.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

A veteran anti-Assad activist, Jandali, 48, lived through siege and exile and has written more than 20 books.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

The siege is the subject of Anthony Kaldellis’s “1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

That landmark picture features McElwee, then in his mid-30s, as he tries to chronicle the exploits of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who laid siege to the South during the Civil War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026

It had been no uncommon sight to see a man-at-arms whistling like a lobster, and looking like porridge, because they had emptied a bucket of boiling bran over his armour during a siege.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Similar sieges unfolded across Syria—in Duma, Zabadani, and beyond.

From Slate ● Nov. 19, 2025

We stretch beyond the cathedral and onto Pamplona’s city walls, where the stone holds centuries of sieges, prayers, and heartbreak.

From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025

The tactics to enforce the sieges have also limited residents’ access to health and education, forcing one in 12 people across the country to flee their homes, the organization said.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023

The UN human rights chief has said sieges are illegal under international law.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2023

You could calculate exactly how many power cells were needed, and sieges could be extended for up to eight hours.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer

On February 28, 1993, law enforcement sieged Mount Carmel Center ranch, the compound that belonged to Koresh and his religious cult.

From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2023

And a subsequent screening he met several audience members who said they were from Mariupol and that their relatives were escaping the sieged city at the same time he was.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 23, 2023

“There is quite a lot of people still remaining in the absolutely sieged city of Mariupol in some inhumane conditions,” he said during a video briefing.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 2022

Over these past weekends, many of my friends have attended medical first aid courses, survival courses on how to survive in an occupied or sieged city.

From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2022

The city's sieged, and thou thus chain'd In airy fetters of a lady's love!

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume 14 of 15 by Robert Dodsley

It has also levied some sanctions on those doing the sieging.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 24, 2022

The War, since Friedrich got out of it, does not abate in animosity, nor want for bloodshed, battle and sieging; but offers little now memorable.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 16 by Thomas Carlyle

He knew that before him lay the culminating battle of his long and ardent sieging of Fortune's stronghold.

From The Trail of the Axe A Story of Red Sand Valley by Ridgwell Cullum

Outside of these lines, with a 50,000 dashing fiercely round us, under any kind of leading; pouncing on our convoys; harassing and sieging US,—our siege of Toumay were a sad outlook.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 15 by Thomas Carlyle

"But there is time ahead of us," said everybody at Breslau; "Glogau will take some sieging!"

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12 by Thomas Carlyle

Related Words

• barricade
• closure
• encirclement
• restriction
• roadblock
• stoppage