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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



42 words match “BESIEGE”

GRENADE n.
ameter, to be thrown from the hand into the head of a sap, trenches, covered way, or upon besiegers mounting a breach. (b) A portable fire extinguisher consisting of a glass bottle containing water and gas. It is thrown into the flames. Called also fire grenade. Rampart grenades, grenades of various sizes, which, when…
INEFFECTUALLY adv.
Without effect; in vain. Hereford . . . had been besieged for abouineffectually by the Scots. Ludlow.
ISSUE v.
To go out; to rush out; to sally forth; as, troops issued from the town, and attacked the besiegers.
LAY v.
ut a corpse. (e) To exert; as, to lay out all one's strength. -- To lay siege to. (a) To besiege; to encompass with an army. (b) To beset pertinaciously. -- To lay the course (Naut.), to sail toward the port intended without jibing. -- To lay the land (Naut.), to cause it to disappear below the horizon, by sailing a…
LEAGUER v.
To besiege; to beleaguer. [Obs.]
LEAGUERER n.
A besieger. [R.] J. Webster.
MURAL a.
indented so as to resemble a battlement, bestowed on him who first mounted the wall of a besieged place, and there lodged a standard.
MUSCULE n.
A long movable shed used by besiegers in ancient times in attacking the walls of a fortified town.
OBSESS v.
To besiege; to beset. Sir T. Elyot.
OBSESSION n.
The state of being besieged; -- used specifically of a person beset by a spirit from without. Tylor. Whether by obsession or possession, I will not determine. Burton.
PARALLEL n.
One of a series of long trenches constructed before a besieged fortress, by the besieging force, as a cover for troops supporting the attacking batteries. They are roughly parallel to the line of outer defenses of the fortress.
QUARTER n.
The encampment on one of the principal passages round a place besieged, to prevent relief and intercept convoys.
RELIEVE v.
to; to give aid, help, or succor to; to support, strengthen, or deliver; as, to relieve a besieged town. Now lend assistance and relieve the poor. Dryden.
SALLY v. 2 definitions
; to burst forth; to issue suddenly; as a body of troops from a fortified place to attack besiegers; to make a sally. They break the truce, and sally out by night. Dryden. The foe retires, -- she heads the sallying host. Byron.
SAP n.
rrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc. Sap fagot (Mil.), a fascine about three feet long, used in sapping, to close the crevices between the gabions before the parapet is made. -- Sap roller (Mil.), a large gabion…
SIEGE n. 2 definitions
of a place by an army, and approaching it by passages and advanced works, which cover the besiegers from the enemy's fire. See the Note under Blockade.
SNAIL n.
A tortoise; in ancient warfare, a movable roof or shed to protect besiegers; a testudo. [Obs.] They had also all manner of gynes [engines] . . . that needful is [in] taking or sieging of castle or of city, as snails, that was naught else but hollow pavises and targets, under the which men, when they fought, were heled…
SORTIE n.
The sudden issuing of a body of troops, usually small, from a besieged place to attack or harass the besiegers; a sally.
SOW n.
A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, or the like. Craig. Sow bread. (Bot.) See Cyclamen. -- Sow bug, or Sowbug (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of terrestrial Isopoda belonging to Oniscus, Porcellio, and allied gene…
SUCCOR v.
lty, want, or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; to relieve; as, to succor a besieged city. [Written also succour.] He is able to succor them that are tempted. Heb. ii. 18.
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