"lay siege" meaning in English

See lay siege in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: lays siege [present, singular, third-person], laying siege [participle, present], laid siege [participle, past], laid siege [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|lay<,,laid> siege}} lay siege (third-person singular simple present lays siege, present participle laying siege, simple past and past participle laid siege)
  1. (intransitive) Chiefly followed by against or to: to engage in a siege; to besiege. Tags: intransitive Translations (to engage in a siege — see also besiege): belagern (German), ostromol (Hungarian), megostromol (Hungarian), assediare (Italian), cingere d'assedio (Italian)
    Sense id: en-lay_siege-en-verb-ZUzNSiue Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 96 4 Disambiguation of 'to engage in a siege — see also besiege': 97 3
  2. (intransitive, figuratively) To attack continually over a long period. Tags: figuratively, intransitive Translations (to attack continually over a long period): ostromol (Hungarian)
    Sense id: en-lay_siege-en-verb-Io-BiS04 Disambiguation of 'to attack continually over a long period': 2 98

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for lay siege meaning in English (3.5kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays siege",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying siege",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid siege",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid siege",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> siege"
      },
      "expansion": "lay siege (third-person singular simple present lays siege, present participle laying siege, simple past and past participle laid siege)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "96 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994, John H. Makin, Norman J. Ornstein, Debt and Taxes: How America Got into Its Budget Mess and What We Can Do about It, New York, NY: Times Books, page 52",
          "text": "In 1574, the duke of Alva laid siege to Leiden to gain control of Holland's most beautiful and prosperous city. To relieve the siege, William of Orange and his followers opened the city's protective dikes to flush out—literally—the surrounding Spanish forces.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-01-28",
          "text": "And Jon—sweet, dull Jon—almost immediately shares his big secret with his sister-cousins, even though it means shattering the appearance of a united front, which is kind of important, since they are about to attempt to lay siege to King’s Landing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Chiefly followed by against or to: to engage in a siege; to besiege."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_siege-en-verb-ZUzNSiue",
      "links": [
        [
          "against",
          "against"
        ],
        [
          "to",
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        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "siege",
          "siege#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "besiege",
          "besiege"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) Chiefly followed by against or to: to engage in a siege; to besiege."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
          "word": "belagern"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
          "word": "ostromol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
          "word": "megostromol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
          "word": "assediare"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
          "word": "cingere d'assedio"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They’re laying siege to all we hold dear.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "The Reds laid siege to the Albion goal throughout, with Jordan Henderson striking the underside of the bar and Dirk Kuyt the inside of the post.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To attack continually over a long period."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_siege-en-verb-Io-BiS04",
      "links": [
        [
          "attack",
          "attack#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "continually",
          "continually"
        ],
        [
          "long",
          "long#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "period",
          "period"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, figuratively) To attack continually over a long period."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to attack continually over a long period",
          "word": "ostromol"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay siege"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays siege",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying siege",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid siege",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "laid siege",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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        "1": "lay<,,laid> siege"
      },
      "expansion": "lay siege (third-person singular simple present lays siege, present participle laying siege, simple past and past participle laid siege)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994, John H. Makin, Norman J. Ornstein, Debt and Taxes: How America Got into Its Budget Mess and What We Can Do about It, New York, NY: Times Books, page 52",
          "text": "In 1574, the duke of Alva laid siege to Leiden to gain control of Holland's most beautiful and prosperous city. To relieve the siege, William of Orange and his followers opened the city's protective dikes to flush out—literally—the surrounding Spanish forces.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-01-28",
          "text": "And Jon—sweet, dull Jon—almost immediately shares his big secret with his sister-cousins, even though it means shattering the appearance of a united front, which is kind of important, since they are about to attempt to lay siege to King’s Landing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Chiefly followed by against or to: to engage in a siege; to besiege."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "against",
          "against"
        ],
        [
          "to",
          "to"
        ],
        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "siege",
          "siege#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "besiege",
          "besiege"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) Chiefly followed by against or to: to engage in a siege; to besiege."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They’re laying siege to all we hold dear.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "The Reds laid siege to the Albion goal throughout, with Jordan Henderson striking the underside of the bar and Dirk Kuyt the inside of the post.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To attack continually over a long period."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "attack",
          "attack#Verb"
        ],
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          "continually",
          "continually"
        ],
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          "long",
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        ],
        [
          "period",
          "period"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, figuratively) To attack continually over a long period."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
      "word": "belagern"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
      "word": "ostromol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
      "word": "megostromol"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
      "word": "assediare"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to engage in a siege — see also besiege",
      "word": "cingere d'assedio"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to attack continually over a long period",
      "word": "ostromol"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay siege"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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