Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To harass; beset.
  • transitive verb To surround with troops; besiege.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To besiege; surround with an army so as to preclude escape; blockade.
  • Synonyms To invest, lay siege to, beset.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To surround with an army so as to preclude escape; to besiege; to blockade.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To besiege; to surround with troops.
  • verb To vex, harass, or beset.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb annoy persistently
  • verb surround so as to force to give up

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably Dutch belegeren : be-, around (from Middle Dutch bie; see ambhi in Indo-European roots) + leger, camp; see legh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dutch belegeren, equivalent to English be- +‎ lair.

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