wire entanglement

American  

noun

1. a barbed-wire obstacle, usually mounted on posts and zigzagged back and forth along a front, designed to channel, delay, or halt an advance by enemy foot soldiers.

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wire entanglement British  

noun

1. a barrier or obstruction of barbed wire used in warfare

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Etymology

Origin of wire entanglement

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

The undertaking in this case was an extremely difficult and dangerous one, both on account of the numerical insufficiency of a single company for the task assigned it, and also because the attack entailed the negotiation of our own barbed wire entanglement.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet their plight was sometimes pitiable, particularly on occasions when, as a Scot described it, he had to take a barbed wire entanglement at “the double” and emerged “a bleeding mass, with his kilt hard a starboard, his kharki flap half left turn, and his sporran dangling on the wire.”

From Project Gutenberg

At the bottom of the ditch is a wire entanglement and the glacis slope is planted with thorns.

From Project Gutenberg

It is low and gives cover to a wire entanglement Obstacles. in the ditch.

From Project Gutenberg

Wire entanglement may be added to this with advantage.

From Project Gutenberg