Definition of "embattled" []

• Prepared or fortified for battle or engaged in battle: embattled troops; an embattled city. (adjective)
• Beset with attackers, criticism, or controversy: an embattled legislative minority. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure."
• "MEXICO CITY - Gunmen stormed a birthday party in embattled Ciudad Juarez and killed 13 young people, the latest outrage in a city crippled by warring drug gangs."
• "Ward Carroll, an aviator who flew with Honors, called the embattled officer "one of the good guys" but said he doesn't expect him to be the commander of the Enterprise when it deploys this month."