embattle
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to arrange in order of battle; prepare for battle; arm.
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to fortify (a town, camp, etc.).
verb (used with object)
verb
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to deploy (troops) for battle
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to strengthen or fortify (a position, town, etc)
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to provide (a building) with battlements
Etymology
Origin of embattle1
1350–1400; Middle English embatailen < Middle French embataillier. See em- 1, battle 1
Origin of embattle2
First recorded in 1350–1400, embattle is from the Middle English word embatailen. See em- 1, battle 2
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:
Those raids have further threatened a health care system in the embattle territory that is struggling to cope with the fallout from the war.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2024
Hunting out two aggressive spiders, he would embattle them and watch with glee through a magnifying glass.
From Time Magazine Archive
The ‘licentia crenellare’ of the middle ages was the sovereign’s permission to his nobles to embattle or fortify their mansions.
From The Curiosities of Heraldry by Mark Antony Lower
In England generally castles belonged only to the Crown or to great nobles, and no gentleman was suffered to castellate or embattle his walls without a special licence from the Crown.
From Cornwall by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to thecourt of guard: the night Is shiny; and they say we shall embattle By the second hour i' the morn.
From Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
President Donald Trump has apparently found a new adviser for his embattled White House ballroom: George Washington.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
It was also attended by embattled Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Insurance companies are exposed to the embattled private-credit industry in more ways than one, according to a new report by Clearwater Analytics, a portfolio-management software provider.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
The embattled leader has held on so far, however, and on Saturday declared a state of emergency that allows him to deploy the army and outlaw demonstrations.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
But, over time, the middle ground that people like Sprat and Bentley had sought to occupy between superstition and rationalism became increasingly embattled, and the pendulum began to swing the other way.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The portly peltry of a goat; its horns embattling its effigy head; its mouth the nozzle; and its long beard flowed to its jet-black hoofs.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I by Herman Melville
But after embattling his facts, an advocate who should wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise, which might tell eloquently upon his cause—such an advocate, would he not be blameworthy?
From Moby Dick, or, the whale by Herman Melville
Then in embattling his Legions, he places the Saints here, and the Angels there, as if one were the main Battle of Infantry, and the other the Wings of Cavalry.
From The History of the Devil As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts by Daniel Defoe
He organized it piecemeal, on a class basis, instead of embattling it as a whole.
From William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose
Oh! she could have lingered there forever! and hardly did she know what it was to draw any but sighs of bliss till she saw the towers of Paris embattling the horizon.
From The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
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.
