besiege

Besiege is a verb that means to surround a place with armed forces in order to compel surrender. It can also be used more broadly to describe overwhelming pressure or persistent requests that harass or exhaust someone. The present tense is besieges, the past and past participle besieged, and the present participle besieging. The noun form besiegement is rare; siege is the more common term for the act itself.

The word derives from Old French besieger, from siege, meaning a surrounding or attack on a fortified place. It entered Middle English with the sense of encircling a fortress and has remained closely tied to the concept of siege warfare in historical contexts. In its historical use, besieging a city or stronghold typically involved encirclement, blockade of supplies, and various siege works or assaults on fortifications.

In modern usage, besiege is employed both literally and figuratively. Literally, it refers to military encirclement and pressure tactics used to compel a fortification to surrender. Figuratively, it describes situations in which a person or institution is overwhelmed by persistent demand, questions, or complaints—examples include media outlets besieging a public figure or fans besieging a venue.

Besiege is also the title of a sandbox indie video game in which players design and operate siege engines to attack structures, blending physics-based construction with tactical experimentation. See also siege, besieging, beleaguer.