siege
part of speech
noun (a siege, sieges); verb (to siege — rare, usually «besiege»)
meaning for a pupil
1) A siege is when an army surrounds a town or castle and stops food and help getting in, so the people inside will give up. tree →
2) A siege can also be when police surround a building where someone is hiding, often with hostages. tree →
3) Under siege can mean being attacked or troubled from all sides by lots of problems or people. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: The Torah warns that in the siege, Israel's enemies would shut them in, and hunger would be terrible. This is part of the curses for breaking the covenant. In the primary lessons: In history lessons it comes with castles, walls, catapults and starving towns; in news, «a police siege»; in everyday talk «under siege» is a strong way to say very busy or attacked; phrases: lay siege to, under siege, siege of (a town), lift the siege.
examples
- And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters whom the LORD thy God hath given thee; in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall straiten thee. (Torah DEU.28.53, JPS 1917) tree →
- Gather up thy wares from the ground, O thou that abidest in the siege. (Prophets JER.10.17, JPS 1917) tree →
- 'Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria: Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide the siege in Jerusalem? (Writings 2CH.32.10, JPS 1917) tree →
- And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it. (Prophets EZK.4.7, JPS 1917) tree →
- The castle held out through a long siege. tree →
- The army laid siege to the city for six months. tree →
- During the siege the people ate rats to survive. tree →
- Police ended the siege after ten hours. tree →
- The siege was lifted when help arrived. tree →
- On sale day the shop was under siege from shoppers. tree →
- We built a model siege engine in history. tree →
- When the enemies of Virgilius heard of this, they assembled together and laid siege to his castle. tree →
note
Spelling trap: «ie» — siege (not «seige»). The verb is usually «besiege». Countable: a siege, two sieges.
In the corpora
- Gather up thy wares from the ground, O thou that abidest in the siege.
- And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it.
- 'Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria: Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide the siege in Jerusalem?
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «siege» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.