SIEGE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does siege mean? 

• SIEGE (noun)
  The noun SIEGE has 1 sense:

1. the action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack

  Familiarity information: SIEGE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SIEGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

beleaguering; besieging; military blockade; siege

Hypernyms ("siege" is a kind of...):

blockade; encirclement (a war measure that isolates some area of importance to the enemy)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Instance hyponyms:

Alamo (a siege and massacre at a mission in San Antonio in 1836; Mexican forces under Santa Anna besieged and massacred American rebels who were fighting to make Texas independent of Mexico)

Atlanta; battle of Atlanta (a siege in which Federal troops under Sherman cut off the railroads supplying the city and then burned it; 1864)

Bataan; Corregidor (the peninsula and island in the Philippines where Japanese forces besieged American forces in World War II; United States forces surrendered in 1942 and recaptured the area in 1945)

Dien Bien Phu (the French military base fell after a siege by Vietnam troops that lasted 56 days; ended the involvement of France in Indochina in 1954)

Lucknow (the British residents of Lucknow were besieged by Indian insurgents during the Indian Mutiny (1857))

Orleans; siege of Orleans (a long siege of Orleans by the English was relieved by Joan of Arc in 1429)

Petersburg; Petersburg Campaign (the final campaign of the American Civil War (1864-65); Union forces under Grant besieged and finally defeated Confederate forces under Lee)

Pleven; Plevna (the town was taken from the Turks by the Russians in 1877 after a siege of 143 days)

siege of Syracuse; Syracuse (the Athenian siege of Syracuse (415-413 BC) was eventually won by Syracuse)

siege of Syracuse; Syracuse (the Roman siege of Syracuse (214-212 BC) was eventually won by the Romans who sacked the city (killing Archimedes))

siege of Vicksburg; Vicksburg (a decisive battle in the American Civil War (1863); after being besieged for nearly seven weeks the Confederates surrendered)

siege of Yorktown; Yorktown (in 1781 the British under Cornwallis surrendered after a siege of three weeks by American and French troops; the surrender ended the American Revolution)

 Context examples 

The Sun is your ruling star, so to have Uranus put the Sun under siege is usually not fun.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I found it rather harassing to live in this state of siege, but was too much afraid of Mrs. Crupp to see any way out of it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“We have all heard of your siege of Capua, and how you ran up your ship’s guns without trenches or parallels, and fired point-blank through the embrasures.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Then, coming forth from the woods, they laid siege to thy castle, and for two days they girt us in and shot hard against us, with such numbers as were a marvel to see.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And to set forth the valour of my own dear countrymen, I assured him, that I had seen them blow up a hundred enemies at once in a siege, and as many in a ship, and beheld the dead bodies drop down in pieces from the clouds, to the great diversion of the spectators.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This would be a bad time to make a large purchase not only because of Mars’ being under siege by Uranus, but also due to Mercury retrograde.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

At length, I lost that feeble hold upon reality, and was engaged with two dear friends, but who they were I don't know, at the siege of some town in a roar of cannonading.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Straightway my uncle began to question him about the sea service, and for the whole meal my father was telling him of the Nile and of the Toulon blockade, and the siege of Genoa, and all that he had seen and done.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After a hearty meal and a dip in the trough to wash the dust from them, they strolled forth into the bailey, where the bowman peered about through the darkness at wall and at keep, with the carping eyes of one who has seen something of sieges, and is not likely to be satisfied.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)