blockaded 1 of 2

past tense of blockade
1
as in guarded
to disallow entry into (a place) by means of a physical barrier at the entry point the militant protestors blockaded the whole area around city hall

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2
as in besieged
to surround (as a fortified place) with armed forces for the purpose of capturing or preventing commerce and communication blockaded the city until it surrendered

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blockaded

2 of 2

adjective

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of blockaded
Adjective
Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet blockaded Ukrainian ports, occupied Snake Island, and threatened Odessa, the country’s main coastal city. Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Foreign Affairs, 23 Sep. 2025 By the late 1940s, concerns shifted toward the threat posed by the Soviet Union, which stationed large military forces across Eastern Europe, staged a coup in Czechoslovakia and blockaded Berlin. John Deni, The Conversation, 10 Sep. 2025 The education ministry said around 100 schools were disrupted and 27 fully blockaded. Saskya Vandoorne, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2025 Just a few months prior, Blackbeard and his small pirate flotilla had blockaded Charleston, South Carolina, for close to a week. Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Nov. 2024 Military vehicles and local and state police blockaded the route into the town center. Jessica Pishko, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2024 Gaza was already impoverished, overcrowded and largely inescapable, blockaded by Israel and Egypt for 17 years. Elizabeth Both, NBC News, 7 Oct. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for blockaded
Verb
  • Federal facilities are often already guarded and screened by security officers.
    Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 25 Sep. 2025
  • There was a mean-spiritedness that the white COs up in the mountains had for us that the Black and brown ones who guarded us in Sing Sing did not.
    John J. Lennon September 24, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Through the first-person narration of his protagonist, Nicholas, a teenager suddenly besieged by anxiety, Clune conveys with uncanny vividness what a panic attack feels like.
    Scott Stossel, The Atlantic, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Landslide in western Sudan kills at least 1,000 A landslide in western Sudan killed at least 1,000 people, intensifying hardship in a country besieged by years of civil war.
    Tasneem Nashrulla, semafor.com, 4 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • At least four people were killed and eight were injured after a gunman attacked a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints service in Michigan on Sunday morning, police said.
    Joe Hernandez, NPR, 29 Sep. 2025
  • Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy and Odesa were also attacked, President Voloydmyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram.
    David Brennan, ABC News, 28 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Concertgoers fluttered around the building, staying away from the barricaded stairs leading up to the upstairs balcony, which is inaccessible.
    Miguel Otárola, Denver Post, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Students returning for the first day of classes this week gathered silently near the barricaded courtyard where Kirk was fatally shot while speaking to students.
    Gabe Whisnant, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The Inter Miami coach realized fatigue would eventually set in as his team, with the most congested and taxing schedule, by far, in Major League Soccer, prepares to play its 54th game of the year Tuesday night against the Chicago Fire.
    Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2025
  • The suit also faults the Federal Aviation Administration for allowing the congested airspace to exist and the actions of controllers.
    Alexandra Skores, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Gone were the giant inflated Brown statues that appeared during recent Breezy Bowl shows (and at his Tycoon Music Festival appearance here in April), which prompted concertgoer complaints about obstructed views.
    Brian McCollum, Freep.com, 10 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • While clogged arteries are still the most common cause of heart attacks overall, seldom understood catalysts have put women at a higher risk, including spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), anemia and infections.
    Alexa Mikhail, Flow Space, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Heart attacks in younger adults aren’t always due to clogged arteries.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 15 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Blockaded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blockaded. Accessed 3 Oct. 2025.

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