besieging

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be·siege

(bĭ-sēj′)

tr.v. be·sieged, be·sieg·ing, be·sieg·es

1. To surround with hostile forces: The soldiers besieged the walled city.

2. To crowd around; hem in: Fans besieged the star as she came out of the hotel.

3. To harass or overwhelm, as with requests: a shop owner besieged by job applications.

[Middle English besegen, probably alteration of assegen, from Old French assegier, from Vulgar Latin *assedicāre : Latin ad-, ad- + Vulgar Latin *sedicāre, to sit; see siege.]

be·siege′ment n.

be·sieg′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

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

beleaguering, military blockade, siege

blockade, encirclement - a war measure that isolates some area of importance to the enemy

armed forces, armed services, military, military machine, war machine - the military forces of a nation; "their military is the largest in the region"; "the military machine is the same one we faced in 1991 but now it is weaker"

References in classic literature ?

Caught on the flank, by the Rue Saint- Pierre-aux-Boeufs, and in the rear through the Rue du Parvis, driven to bay against Notre-Dame, which they still assailed and Quasimodo defended, at the same time besiegers and besieged, they were in the singular situation in which Comte Henri Harcourt, Taurinum obsessor idem et obsessus , as his epitaph says, found himself later on, at the famous siege of Turin, in 1640, between Prince Thomas of Savoy, whom he was besieging, and the Marquis de Leganez, who was blockading him.

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On the 3d of July, 1775, he arrived at Cambridge, and took command of the troops which were besieging General Gage.

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"Thou forgettest, however, Ben-Levi," replied Abel-Phittim, "that the Roman Pompey, who is now impiously besieging the city of the Most High, has no assurity that we apply not the lambs thus purchased for the altar, to the sustenance of the body, rather than of the spirit."

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Martin and the fort of La Pree, as on their side the French were besieging La Rochelle.