siege

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The surrounding and blockading of a city, town, or fortress by an army attempting to capture it.
2. n. A prolonged period, as of illness: a siege of asthma.
3. n. Obsolete A seat, especially a throne.
4. v. To subject to a siege; besiege. See Synonyms at besiege.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A seat; a throne.
2. n. A fixed situation or position; station as to rank or class; specifically, of the heron, a station or an attitude of watchfulness for prey.
3. n. A camp; an encampment, especially as the seat of a besieging army.
4. n. The stationing or sitting down of an attacking force in a strong encampment before or around a fortified place, for the purpose of capturing it by continuous offensive operations, such as the breaching, undermining, or scaling of walls or other works, the destruction of its defenders, the cutting off of supplies, etc.; the act of besieging, or the state of being besieged; besiegement; beleaguerment: as, to push the siege; to undergo a siege; hence, figuratively, a prolonged or persistent endeavor to overcome resistance maintained with the aid of a shelter or cover of any kind.
5. n. Stool; excrement; fecal matter.
6. n. In mech.:
7. n. The floor of a glass-furnace.
8. n. A workmen's table or bench.
9. n. A flock, as of herons, bitterns, or cranes.
10. To lay siege to; besiege; beleaguer; beset.

Wiktionary

1. n. seat.
2. n. A seat, especially as used by someone of importance or authority.
3. n. 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book III:
4. n. Thenne the Bisshop of Caunterbury was fette and he blessid the syeges with grete Royalte and deuocyon, and there sette the viii and xx knyghtes in her syeges [...].
5. n. 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:
6. n. To th'vpper part, where was aduaunced hye / A stately siege of soueraigne maiestye; / And thereon sat a woman gorgeous gay [...].
7. n. An ecclesiastical see.
8. n. The place where one has his seat; a home, residence, domain, empire.
9. n. The seat of a heron while looking out for prey; a flock of heron.
10. n. A privy or lavatory.
11. n. The anus; the rectum.
12. n. 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.17:
13. n. Another ground were certain holes or cavities observable about the siege; which being perceived in males, made some conceive there might be also a feminine nature in them.
14. n. military action
15. n. A prolonged military assault or a blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition.
16. n. 1748. David Hume. Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. Section 3. § 5.
17. n. The Peloponnesian war is a proper subject for history, the siege of Athens for an epic poem, and the death of Alcibiades for a tragedy.
18. n. A period of struggle or difficulty, especially from illness.
19. v. To assault a blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition; to besiege.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A seat; especially, a royal seat; a throne.
2. n. Hence, place or situation; seat.
3. n. Rank; grade; station; estimation.
4. n. Passage of excrements; stool; fecal matter.
5. n. The sitting of an army around or before a fortified place for the purpose of compelling the garrison to surrender; the surrounding or investing 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.
6. n. Hence, a continued attempt to gain possession.
7. n. The floor of a glass-furnace.
8. n. A workman's bench.
9. v. To besiege; to beset.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack