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# siege

«siege» in Mova's school dictionary: **when an army surrounds a town or castle and stops food…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a siege, sieges); verb (to siege — rare, usually «besiege»)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A siege is when an army surrounds a town or castle and stops food and help getting in, so the people inside will give up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#m1)

2) A siege can also be when police surround a building where someone is hiding, often with hostages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#m2)

3) Under siege can mean being attacked or troubled from all sides by lots of problems or people. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In history lessons it comes with castles, walls, catapults and starving towns; in news, «a police siege»; in everyday talk «under siege» is a strong way to say very busy or attacked; phrases: lay siege to, under siege, siege of (a town), lift the siege.

### examples

- The castle held out through a long siege. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x1)
- The army laid siege to the city for six months. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x2)
- During the siege the people ate rats to survive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x3)
- Police ended the siege after ten hours. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x4)
- The siege was lifted when help arrived. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x5)
- On sale day the shop was under siege from shoppers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x6)
- We built a model siege engine in history. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x7)
- When the enemies of Virgilius heard of this, they assembled together and laid siege to his castle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/#x8)

### note

Spelling trap: «ie» — siege (not «seige»). The verb is usually «besiege». Countable: a siege, two sieges.

### In the corpora

- [Gather up thy wares from the ground, O thou that abidest in the siege.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.315/)
- [And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/EZK.76/)
- ['Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria: Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide the siege in Jerusalem?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/2CH.741/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «siege» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/siege/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.