(~s)
1.
A ~ is a military or police operation in which soldiers or police surround a place in order to force the people there to come out or give up control of the place.
We must do everything possible to lift the ~...
The journalists found a city virtually under ~.
N-COUNT: also under N
see also state of ~
2.
If police, soldiers, or journalists lay ~ to a place, they surround it in order to force the people there to come out or give up control of the place.
The rebels laid ~ to the governor’s residence...
PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR to n