besieged

verb

past tense of besiege
1
as in blockaded
to surround (as a fortified place) with armed forces for the purpose of capturing or preventing commerce and communication armies besieged the city for six months before it finally surrendered

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2
as in plagued
to cause persistent suffering to a family besieged by worries about the faltering economy

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3
as in petitioned
to make a request to (someone) in an earnest or urgent manner bereaved parents continued to besiege the president with pleas to end the war

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of besieged In recent months, Israeli settlers have repeatedly besieged the village of Qusra, defying orders from the authorities to leave the area and trying to force Palestinian families, some of whom are also American citizens, out. — Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2026 There has been a spate of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, and the village of Qusra has been besieged by Israeli settlers for weeks. — F. Brinley Bruton, NBC news, 29 Aug. 2026 One of them, Muammar Ibrahim, reported for Al Jazeera’s Arabic network while the city was besieged. — Mat Nashed, Christian Science Monitor, 27 Aug. 2026 Indiana, besieged by injuries after reaching the 2025 NBA Finals, was 1-12 when Mathurin returned. — William Guillory, New York Times, 26 Aug. 2026 Saunders is one of the most senior Australian Catholics to be convicted in a global clergy abuse scandal that has besieged the Vatican for years. — ABC News, 13 Aug. 2026 The Pratts are in serious crisis, besieged by bullies and bad neighbors outside of their house and foundation-crumbling dysfunction inside it. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2026 The staff means business, with the host stand besieged by walk-ins, take-out orders, and impatient guests waiting outside. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 July 2026 As a result, the federal court in South Florida has been besieged with habeas petitions. — Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 30 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for besieged
  1. blockaded
  2. plagued
  3. petitioned
  4. attacked
  5. afflicted
  6. begged
  7. beleaguered
  8. persecuted
Verb
  • Iran’s proxies in the region, the Houthis, have since blockaded another strait – the Bab-al-Mandeb – challenging Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil through that alternate route.
    — David Goldman, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2026
  • During the early nineteen-eighties, when Paul Volcker, the chair of the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates to twenty per cent in the face of rampant inflation, furious farmers blockaded the Fed’s headquarters with their tractors.
    — John Cassidy, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of blockaded
Verb
  • Garbage’s set was plagued by technical difficulties, but singer Shirley Manson kept her cool, joking that this was just the kind of thing the band was used to.
    — Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone, 30 Aug. 2026
  • The research team identified opportunities to improve the atomic layer etching (ALE) approach, which offers significant advantages over the conventional methods but was plagued by difficulties for practical use.
    — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of plagued
Verb
  • After Moscow refused to pay the 2023 award, Naftogaz petitioned national courts for orders to seize Russian commercial assets.
    — Claudia Ciobanu, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2026
  • The County Attorney’s Office petitioned the court to revoke Myers’ probation on July 8.
    — Taylor Seely, AZCentral.com, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of petitioned
Verb
  • For example, ExploitGym, a cybersecurity benchmark that was at the center of the July incident in which OpenAI’s models went rogue and attacked the company Hugging Face, was created in 2026.
    — Emily Forlini, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026
  • In the wake of Thursday’s ruling, a chorus of Missouri Republicans have attacked the court over its decision.
    — Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of attacked
Verb
  • The global food system is afflicted by uncertainty across many domains—weather, supply chains, labor, trade, and beyond.
    — Anna Nelson, Foreign Affairs, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Over 600,000 women a year in America are afflicted with postpartum depression in America, research shows.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of afflicted
Verb
  • For months, boisterous fellows at Angels Stadium peeled off their shirts and begged Moreno to sell.
    — Andy McCullough, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Her cellmates saw her in distress and begged her to tell them what happened.
    — Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of begged
Verb
  • Manmade infrastructure on California’s coast has been battered and beleaguered in recent years — even without El Niño.
    — Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026
  • In New Jersey — a state beleaguered by waste and high costs in its public health plans — teachers and other school workers face premium hikes of 34% next year.
    — Bob Herman, STAT, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of beleaguered
Verb
  • García Luna pledged to restore independence and public confidence in the Public Ministry and began reviewing cases involving officials, journalists, and others who alleged that they had been politically persecuted under the previous administration.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Many Marranos persecuted by the Inquisition did secretly maintain a Jewish identity.
    — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of persecuted

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Cite this Entry

“Besieged.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/besieged. Accessed 6 Sep. 2026.

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