under siege

idiom

1
: surrounded with soldiers or police officers in a siege
The city was under siege and food was getting scarce.
2
: very seriously attacked or criticized by many people
The newspaper has been under siege lately by its readers for printing a false story.

Examples of under siege in a Sentence

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The Millers had already felt under siege, facing threats and fearing that the entire family was being surveilled by sophisticated actors. Michael Scherer, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2026 Brock Purdy was under siege all night and had trouble getting up off the turf after being hit by two Seattle defenders on his final pass of the game, a fourth-down incompletion. Michael Nowels, Mercury News, 4 Jan. 2026 When the violence fails to stop after the formal Purge ends, two families must band together to escape the anarchists by crossing into Mexico, but with the United States under siege, surviving will be much more difficult than just making it through one deadly night. Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 26 Dec. 2025 In a post-October 7 world where Jews are under siege, one of the root causes of this treacherous environment are teachers’ unions. Mark Pinkert, Oc Register, 23 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for under siege

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Cite this Entry

“Under siege.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/under%20siege. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.

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