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rpose of compelling to surrender; to lay siege to; to beleaguer; to beset. Till Paris was besieged, famished, and lost. Shak.

The act of besieging, or the state of being besieged. Golding.

One who besieges; -- opposed to the besieged.

giving much annoyance to passengers. Fuller. For the further annoyance and terror of any besieged place, they would throw into it dead bodies. Wilkins.

The advanced works, trenches, or covered roads made by besiegers in their advances toward a fortress or military post.

To besiege. [Obs.] "Assieged castles." Spenser.

1. (Mil.) An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places.

To surround with an army so as to preclude escape; to besiege; to blockade. The wail of famine in beleaguered towns. Longfellow.

A movable tower erected by besiegers for purposes of attack and defense.

To hem in; to waylay; to surround; to besiege; to blockade. "Beset with foes." Milton. Let thy troops beset our gates. Addison.

That besieges; laying siege to. -- Be*sie"ging*ly, adv.

, to block up a road or harbor. With moles . . . would block the port. Rowe. A city . . . besieged and blocked about. Milton.

A line of field works made around a besieged place and the besieging army, to protect the camp of the besiegers against the attack of an enemy from without.

A trench dug in the botton of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire.

To inclose on all sides; to surround; to encircle; to envior; to invest; to besiege; -- used with about, round, around, and round about. With terrors and with clamors compassed round. Milton. Now all the blessings Of a glad cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round.uke xix. 43.

A trench guarded with a parapet, constructed by besiegers, to secure themselves and check sallies of the besieged.

h (Fort.), a trench or work pushed forward from defensive works to meet the approaches of besiegers. See Approach. -- Counter bond (Law), in old practice, a bond to secure one who has given bond for another. -- Counter brace. See Counter brace, in Vocabulary. -- Counter deed (Law), a secret writing which destroys, i…

A passage cut through the glacis to facilitate sallies by the besieged. Wilhelm.

The surrender of a besieged fortress or town ; as, the fall of Sebastopol.

t hopeless; desperate. For here forlorn and lost I tread. Goldsmith. The condition of the besieged in the mean time was forlorn in the extreme. Prescott. She cherished the forlorn hope that he was still living. Thomson. A forlorn hope Etym: [D. verloren hoop, prop., a lost band or troop; verloren, p.p. of verliezen to…