I. ˈsēj noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English sege, from Old French, seat, act of sitting, act or instance of settling, siege, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin sedicum, from sedicare to sit, settle, from Latin sedēre to sit — more at sit
1. obsolete
a. : a seat usually of distinction (as in a theater) for a knight
b. : throne
2. obsolete : a center of power or authority : see , seat
3.
a. : the operations of an army around or before a fortified place for the purpose of compelling its surrender or of reducing it by assault after systematic blockade, advances, and bombardment ; broadly : beseiging, beleaguering
the battlement on which 15 Americans were to withstand … an arm's length siege by a force tenfold their strength — S.L.A.Marshall
a weapon designed to conduct siege operations — Time
b. : a persistent attack (as of illness or other misfortune)
a siege of typhoid fever
the siege of age-old fears — Francis Ratcliffe
c. : a period of time especially when trying
a siege in the territorial prison and also a term in the insane asylum — D.D.Martin
your siege in the hospital — Louis Auchincloss
d. : a large amount : quantity
didn't get around much because of having such a siege of work to be done — Eugene Walter
after a siege of persuasion agreed to visit the recruiting station — Springfield (Massachusetts) Union
4. obsolete
a. : privy
b. : evacuation of the bowels
c. : fecal matter
d.
(1) : anus
(2) : rectum
5. or sedge ˈsej : a flock or brood of birds (as herons or bitterns) ; also : the station of a heron on the lookout for prey
6. : the floor of a glass furnace
7. : a hewer's workbench
•
- lay siege to
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English segen, from sege n., siege
: besiege
mankind is sorely sieged by hate's black hordes — E.P.Fewster