siege
Americannoun
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sieges
plural
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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.
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any prolonged or persistent effort to overcome resistance.
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a series of illnesses, troubles, or annoyances besetting a person or group.
a siege of head colds.
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a prolonged period of trouble or annoyance.
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Ornithology. Also
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a flock of herons.
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the station of a heron at prey.
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the shelf or floor of a glassmaking furnace on which the glass pots are set.
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Obsolete.
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a seat, especially one used by a person of distinction, as a throne.
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station as to rank or class.
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verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
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the offensive operations carried out to capture a fortified place by surrounding it, severing its communications and supply lines, and deploying weapons against it
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( as modifier )
siege warfare
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a persistent attempt to gain something
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a long tedious period, as of illness, etc
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obsolete a seat or throne
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to besiege
verb
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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Vocabulary lists containing siege
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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:
In an interview on Friday with CNN, Giuffra said: "She's under siege on social media where people are trying to identify her."
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
Under siege for much of a scoreless second half, York stood firm to claim a surprise win over the favourites.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
During the 1710 siege of Tallinn, for example, the disease killed Swedish and Russian soldiers as well as civilians.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
If a 63-hour hostage siege sounds tiresome, it certainly can be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
It came as no surprise to the ferret to see a large siege tower under construction.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Similar sieges unfolded across Syria—in Duma, Zabadani, and beyond.
From Slate ● Nov. 19, 2025
This frequently happens in sieges, such as Germany's encirclement of Leningrad during World War II.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2024
The UN human rights chief has said sieges are illegal under international law.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2023
Human Rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday, adding that "sieges" were illegal under international law.
From Reuters ● Oct. 10, 2023
The beat knights had gone to perfection, leaving the wont to hold their sieges.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
And at 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 ● Jul. 12, 2023
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
“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
He knows every foot of the ground, having sieged here, in his boyhood, once before.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 15 by Thomas Carlyle
It has also levied some sanctions on those doing the sieging.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 24, 2022
The admiral's power exceedeth the king's," wrote Cecil to Nicholas White: "he is sieging of Poitiers, the winning or losing whereof will make an end of the cause.
From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume 2 by Henry Martyn Baird
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
Friedrich is not thought to shine in the sieging line as he does in the fighting; which has some truth in it, though not very much.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18 by Thomas Carlyle
On the other hand, that this mode of sieging by red-hot balls seems a little unusual; for the rest, that he has himself no order or intention but that of resisting to the last.'
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12 by Thomas Carlyle
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
