Definition of "siege" []

• The surrounding and blockading of a city, town, or fortress by an army attempting to capture it. (noun)
• A prolonged period, as of illness: a siege of asthma. (noun)
• Obsolete A seat, especially a throne. (noun)
• To subject to a siege; besiege. See Synonyms at besiege. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "Palestinian IT Association (PITA) reports on the IT sector in Gaza, "We are able to export software and communication systems to the Middle East", "but the siege is our biggest obstacle" referring to the limitation on technologies Israel allows into Gaza."
• "Mohammed says he stopped believing in a peaceful solution to the conflict here when Israel imposed a blockade, or what he calls a siege of Gaza."
• "The date of the beginning as well as the end of the siege is here carefully marked (compare Eze 24: 1; Jer 39: 1; 52: 4-6); from which it appears, that, with a brief interruption caused by Nebuchadnezzar's marching to oppose the Egyptians who were coming to its relief but who retreated without fighting, the siege lasted a year and a half."