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beleaguered

UK/bɪˈliːɡəd/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,601 of 15,258leans written

Beleaguered means under constant pressure from all sides. A beleaguered minister, the beleaguered city, beleaguered staff.

It is a favourite of headlines, where a beleaguered leader is one everybody expects to fall. The literal meaning is besieged, and the word came from the Dutch for a camp — to beleaguer is to camp around a place.

Definitions of beleaguered

  1. 1adjectivebeleagueredUnder constant pressure from all sides.C1

    “The beleaguered manager faced angry fans, unhappy players and impatient owners.”

beleaguered is a state of pressure.

Where it comes from

  1. Middle Low German

    belēgeren

  2. Dutch

    belegeren

  3. English

    beleaguer

  4. English, today

    beleaguered

From beleaguer + -ed. 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

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

beleaguered in the wild

  • One example of actions leading to awarding of a grass crown would be a general who broke the blockade around a beleaguered Roman army.

    Grass Crown

  • Wendy Armstrong, a beleaguered resident, on the first two seasons of the medical drama St.

    Kim Miyori

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the belēgeren family

beleaguered

beleaguered — used about once every 15,236 pages · #12,601 · point at the bar for the others

  • lair