Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Siege

Siege, n. [OE. sege, OF. siege, F. siège a seat, a siege; cf. It. seggia, seggio, zedio, a seat, asseggio, assedio, a siege, F. assiéger to besiege, It. & LL. assediare, L. obsidium a siege, besieging; all ultimately fr. L. sedere to sit. See Sit, and cf. See, n.] 1. A seat; especially, a royal seat; a throne. [Obs.] "Upon the very siege of justice." Shak.

A stately siege of sovereign majesty, And thereon sat a woman gorgeous gay. Spenser.

In our great hall there stood a vacant chair . . . And Merlin called it "The siege perilous." Tennyson.

2. Hence, place or situation; seat. [Obs.]

Ah! traitorous eyes, come out of your shameless siege forever. Painter (Palace of Pleasure).

3. Rank; grade; station; estimation. [Obs.]

I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege. Shak.

4. Passage of excrements; stool; fecal matter. [Obs.]

The siege of this mooncalf. Shak.

5. 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. Hence, a continued attempt to gain possession.

Love stood the siege, and would not yield his breast. Dryden.

7. The floor of a glass-furnace.

8. A workman's bench. Knught.

Siege gun, a heavy gun for siege operations. — Siege train, artillery adapted for attacking fortified places.

Siege, v. t. To besiege; to beset. [R.]

Through all the dangers that can siege The life of man. Buron.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.