besieging

9.2

Surrounding a town or fort and attacking it to make the people inside surrender

noun
/bɪˈsiːdʒɪŋ/

: asedio

The city's defenses were strong, making the besieging a challenging task for the troops.

Examples

She can thus blockade coastal cities and facilitate the total and more hasty besieging of such cities.
The general planned the besieging of the castle to force its inhabitants to surrender.
After months of besieging, the army finally captured the fortified town.

Synonyms

siege

vsbesieging

139 6.8

A military attack that surrounds a place and stops supplies to make those inside give up

emphasizes active attack on fortifications to force surrender rather than only cutting supplies

encirclement

vsbesieging

Specialized

2 7.5

Surrounding a place or army to cut off supplies and stop escape

adds active assault to surrounding in order to force a fortified place to surrender

military blockade

vsbesieging

1 6.7

Soldiers or ships surround a place to stop supplies and force it to give up

focuses more on direct assault of fortifications rather than mainly isolation

beleaguering

vsbesieging

Specialized

9.9

A military action that surrounds a fort or city and cuts off its supplies

places more weight on attacking fortifications to force surrender

Antonyms

disengagement

1 6.5

The act of stopping a connection or ending involvement with something

How Intense

to storm

102 5.7

besieging

9.2

assault

Specialized

378 4.5

to blockade

9 6.0

Surface Forms

besieging singular

besiegings plural

Morphology

besieging = besiege (transparent) = be + siege + ing

The noun is the gerund/present-participle form of the verb 'besiege' and its meaning is directly derived by adding -ing to that verb.

Etymology

Besieging comes from an old idea of 'sitting' around a place: the parts be- and siege share the same idea as the English word seat, which means 'to sit'. So, to besiege is to 'sit around' a fort or city, surrounding it and waiting for it to 'surrender'.