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

See Examples For:

wire entanglement

In October 1916, under fierce enemy fire he succeeded in cutting an Austrian barbed wire entanglement and led a storming party to the capture of an important ridge position.

From Time Magazine Archive

That night the Cabinet threw a barbed wire entanglement and a cordon of troops around the Ballhaus, retired within and hammered out a compromise which did all present much credit.

From Time Magazine Archive

At 3.10 the leading heroes—we were amazed at their daring—actually stood up in order the better to cut through a broad belt of wire entanglement.

From Gallipoli Diary, Volume I by Sir Ian Hamilton

He merely succeeded in getting into a wire entanglement and having no groom had to leave his mare.

From The Fifth Leicestershire A Record Of The 1/5th Battalion The Leicestershire Regiment, T.F., During The War, 1914-1919. by John David Hills

An excellent arrangement is to dig the pits in a checkerboard plan, leaving alternate squares and placing a stake in each of them to form a wire entanglement, Fig.

From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss