Link Centre Dictionary

beleaguer

be·lea·guer

UK/bɪˈliː.ɡə/ US/bɪˈli.ɡɚ/ uncommon

verb

1.

annoy persistently

  • “The children teased the boy because of his stammer”
2.

surround so as to force to give up

  • “The Turks besieged Vienna”

Origin

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.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.