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
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
She feared he would vent plain speech that would cut Mr. Feuerstein's sensitive soul and embattle his dignity and pride against his love.
From The Fortune Hunter by David Graham Phillips
And Douglas found the forces that were to embattle him drawing up in line.
From Children of the Market Place by Edgar Lee Masters
Acme’s success is the latest humiliation for embattled Warner Bros.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
Gone is Martin Jarmond, the embattled athletic director whose six-year tenure Bruins fans will feel, well, forever.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The UN's most powerful body, the Security Council, meets Friday to hold another straw poll to gauge the popularity of a growing field of contenders to lead the embattled organization.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
President Donald Trump has apparently found a new adviser for his embattled White House ballroom: George Washington.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
That was the face which, when she saw it at all, was across his own dining table—the face of a foe who did, not even know that it was embattled.
From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner
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 blame-worthy?
From Moby Dick: or, the White Whale 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
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.
