besiege

Meanings

1. 1verbtransitivemilitary

   To surround a town or fortress with armed forces and cut it off until it gives in.

   Grammar: Always takes an object: the army besieged the city.

   Patterns

   • besiege something

   The army besieged the castle for six months.

   Rebels besieged the capital and cut off its food.

   The fort had been besieged twice before.

2. 2verbtransitivefigurative

   To crowd around someone or fill their time with too many requests, questions, or complaints.

   Grammar: Often passive and followed by with: besieged with calls.

   Patterns

   • besiege someone with something
   • be besieged by something

   Reporters besieged the actor outside the hotel.

   The help desk was besieged with calls after the outage.

   She was besieged by offers as soon as she won.

Word forms

Common combinations

besiege a city

The troops besieged the city for a year.

besieged by reporters

The mayor was besieged by reporters.

besieged with requests

The charity was besieged with requests for help.

besiege the castle

The invaders besieged the castle.

besieged by doubts

He was besieged by doubts before the exam.

Synonyms and how they differ

surround

Surround just means to be on all sides, while besiege adds the aim of forcing surrender or overwhelming.

swamp

Swamp suggests being flooded with too much work, but lacks the idea of pressure from a crowd.

hound

Hound means to chase and pester one person constantly, which is narrower than besiege.

blockade

Blockade cuts supplies, usually of a port or coast, while besiege involves surrounding a place.

Opposites

Word family

siege noun

the act of surrounding a place to force surrender

besieger noun

one who besieges

besieged adjective

surrounded or overwhelmed

besieging adjective

surrounding in a siege

Commonly confused: besiege or beseech?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “besiege”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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