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🏰 To surround 💬 To overwhelm
to besiege

to besiege

19 8.3
To surround a place with soldiers until the people inside give up
  • verb
  • /bɪˈsiːdʒ/
translation icon : asediar
  • During the conflict, the city was besieged by enemy troops, cutting off all supplies.
  • besieged city
  • besieged regime
  • besieged government

On the other hand, he does report that this Franks besieged Saragosa.

Examples

  • Over the winter months, Agrippa besieged the town.

  • In the meantime, the War of Independence broke out and Jerusalem was besieged.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • My lord... we were besieged on all sides.

    Cromwell (1970)

  • But on its return it is besieged by the rebel army

    The Myth of Fingerprints (1997)

  • The crusaders had arrived at Jerusalem on 7 June and immediately began to besiege the city.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The next year, Victor besieged the Spanish port of Cadiz.

  • Imagine Quintus's surprise when, without warning, Ambiorix's army showed up and besieged his camp.

  • Around 300,000 people from Kobani, most of whom were Kurdish, took shelter in Turkey when ISIS besieged the city in September 2014.

    Academic text (2017)

  • Although the Albanians employed scorched earth tactics and continually attacked the Ottomans, Murad managed to besiege the important fortress of Svetigrad in May.

  • After surviving relentless attacks from mercenary forces in the escalating oil wars, sources tell us that pleas have finally been answered for the besieged employees of Yutime Chinese oil refinery in the Middle East.

    Hidden Strike (2023)

Synonyms

to surround
vsto besiege
∞ 1.7

To be all around a person or thing on every side

refers to a military encirclement aimed to capture or force surrender
to lay siege
vsto besiege
7 8.2

Surround a place with soldiers and cut off its supplies to make it give up

focuses on surrounding to capture or force surrender without method detail
to hem in
vsto besiege
6 6.7

Surround a person or thing so they cannot leave

involves armed forces surrounding to capture or force surrender rather than restricting movement
to beleaguer
vsto besiege
3 9.5

To surround a place with soldiers to force it to give up

includes capturing the place as well as forcing surrender
to circumvent
vsto besiege
  • Archaic
1 8.2

To surround an enemy to make them give up

requires surrounding with armed forces to capture or force surrender

Antonyms

to release
∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

to withdraw
466 2.8

To stop taking part in a place or activity

How Attacked

to overrun
20 7.0
to besiege
19 8.3
to attack
∞ 1.3
to raid
66 4.1
to assail
  • Formal
16 8.0
to harass
302 4.0

Surface Forms

besiege infinitive
besieged past
besieged past participle
besieging present participle
besieges third person singular

Morphology

besiege = siege (transparent) = be + siege

Formed by the productive prefix 'be-' plus the noun 'siege', yielding the verb 'to place under siege' in a direct, predictable way.

Etymology

Besiege comes from be- + siege, where siege originally meant 'seat', like the English word seat, and came to mean a camp set up around a town in war. So to besiege a place is to 'surround' it with soldiers to capture it.