beleaguer

UK/bɪˈliː.ɡə/US/bɪˈli.ɡɚ/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — lair sits at #5,420Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: beleaguered, beleaguering

To beleaguer is to surround with trouble or with an army. Beleaguer a city.

The participle is far commoner, and a beleaguered minister is a fixture of headlines. To beleaguer once meant only a siege and now means being harried from all sides.

Definitions of beleaguer

1verbbeleaguerTo surround with trouble or with an army.C2
“Complaints beleaguer the department every winter.”

beleaguer is an action.

Where it comes from

Dutch belegeren, to camp around, from leger, a camp, which also gives lair and laager.

Middle Low German
belēgeren
Dutch
belegeren
English, today
beleaguer

Borrowed from Dutch belegeren and/or Middle Low German belēgeren; equivalent to be + lair. Compare also German belagern, Danish belejre. The English spelling was perhaps influenced by unrelated league.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary