siege
[ seej ]
/ sidʒ /
noun
verb (used with object), sieged, sieg·ing.
to assail or assault; besiege.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
beset, bedevil, plague, annoy, gnaw, nag, tease, bother, pester, vex, blockade, persecute, storm, harry, worry, badger, cage, hinder, coop, fence
Nearby words
- sidrah,
- sids,
- sieg heil,
- siegbahn,
- siegbahn, karl manne georg,
- siege mentality,
- siege perilous,
- siege piece,
- siegen,
- siegfried
Idioms
lay siege to, to besiege: The army laid siege to the city for over a month.
Origin of siege
1175–1225; (noun) Middle English sege < Old French: seat, noun derivative of siegier < Vulgar Latin *sedicāre to set, derivative of Latin sedēre to sit1; (v.) Middle English segen, derivative of the noun
SYNONYMS FOR siege
1. 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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for sieging
What could such tender creatures have done at such a place as the sieging of Charlestown?
Horse-Shoe Robinson|John Pendleton KennedyItaly, all but some sieging of strong-places, may be considered as lost for the present.
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. IX. (of XXI.)|Thomas Carlyle
siege
/ (siːdʒ) /
noun
- the offensive operations carried out to capture a fortified place by surrounding it, severing its communications and supply lines, and deploying weapons against it
- (as modifier)siege warfare
a persistent attempt to gain something
a long tedious period, as of illness, etc
obsolete a seat or throne
lay siege to to besiege
verb
(tr) to besiege or assail
Word Origin for siege
C13: from Old French sege a seat, from Vulgar Latin sēdicāre (unattested) to sit down, from Latin sedēre
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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siege
early 13c., "a seat" (as in Siege Perilous, early 13c., the vacant seat at Arthur's Round Table, according to prophecy to be occupied safely only by the knight destined to find the Holy Grail), from Old French sege "seat, throne," from Vulgar Latin *sedicum "seat," from Latin sedere "sit" (see sedentary). The military sense is attested from c.1300; the notion is of an army "sitting down" before a fortress.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper