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Dec 29, 2016 · 1 : to cause distress to : besiege. 2 : trouble, harass. beleaguer in Context. Despite being beleaguered by injuries, the scrappy football team fought hard and managed to make the playoffs.
In modern Dutch, leger means army and not camp (interesting semantic shift), but the meaning of belegeren has not changed.
The earliest known use of the verb beleaguer is in the late 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for beleaguer is from around 1589, in the writing of Thomas Nashe, writer. beleaguer is a borrowing from Dutch.
- Etymology
- Pronunciation
- Verb
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.
(UK) IPA(key): /bɪˈliː.ɡə/, /bəˈliː.ɡə/(General American) IPA(key): /bɪˈli.ɡɚ/Rhymes: -iːɡə(ɹ)beleaguer (third-person singular simple present beleaguers, present participle beleaguering, simple past and past participle beleaguered) 1. To besiege; to surround with troops. 1.1. 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Beleaguered City”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanzas 1–2, page 22:...
Oct 7, 2022 · beleaguer. (v.) 1580s, "besiege, surround, blockade," literal and figurative, from Dutch or Low German belegeren "to besiege," from be- "around" (from Proto-Germanic *bi- "around, about;" see by) + legeren "to camp," from leger "bed, camp, army, lair," from Proto-Germanic *legraz- (from PIE *legh-ro-, suffixed form of root *legh- "to lie down ...
Dec 29, 2020 · In case you hadn’t noticed, there are many songs out there about food and drink. Oftentimes, the reference to food or drink is just a metaphor for something else, and the songs usually have deeper meanings, but we’ll be getting into that too.
Borrowing from Dutch belegeren, equivalent to be-+ lair. Pronunciation (Brit. Eng.) IPA: /bɪˈliː.ɡə/ (Amer. Eng.) IPA: /bɪˈli.ɡɚ/ Rhymes: -iːɡə(r) Verb beleaguer (third-person singular simple present beleaguers, present participle beleaguering, simple past and past participle beleaguered) To besiege; to surround with troops.
