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siege engine

Syllables: siege en·gineUK/ˈsiːd͡ʒ ˌɛnd͡ʒɪn//ˈsid͡ʒ ˌɛnd͡ʒɪn/

siege engine noun: a large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.; specifically, a trebuchet or other type of catapult.

siege engine: a large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements,...
Image: Quistnix, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

siege engine (plural siege engines)

  1. (historical) A large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.; specifically, a trebuchet or other type of catapult.
    • Opposite this hill Bohemund's men now began to dig in a definite direction. For the besiegers had devised this new mischief against the city and invented a new knavish siege-engine to apply to the town. For as they dug, they went along under the ground like moles boring holes in the soil and in...1928, Anna Comnena [i.e., Anna Komnene], “Book XIII”, in Elizabeth A[nna] S[ophia] Dawes, transl., The Alexiad (Byzantine Series), Cambridge, Ont.: In Parentheses Publications, published 2000, page...
    • The cavalry were on the wings and the siege-engines, mangonels and catapults, planted on sand-dunes.1934, Robert Graves, chapter XXXII, in I, Claudius: […], New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, →OCLC, page 401

siege engine meaning in Arabic, Indonesian, Persian and Vietnamese

siege engine in Arabic

large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.
مُعِدَّات حِصَار muʕiddāt ḥiṣār

siege engine in Indonesian

large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.
mesin kepung

siege engine in Persian

large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.
ادوات محاصره

siege engine in Vietnamese

large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.
vũ khí công thành

Synonyms of siege engine

Forms of siege engine

pluralsiege engines
alternative formsiege-engine

Origin of siege engine

PIE word *h₁én From siege + engine (“large construction used in warfare”).

Questions about siege engine

What does siege engine mean?
Siege engine means a large weapon of war used during ancient and medieval times to batter fortifications, settlements, etc.; specifically, a trebuchet or other type of catapult.
What is siege engine in Arabic?
Siege engine in Arabic is مُعِدَّات حِصَار (muʕiddāt ḥiṣār). See Siege engine meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is siege engine?
Siege engine is a noun.
How do you pronounce siege engine?
Siege engine is pronounced /ˈsiːd͡ʒ ˌɛnd͡ʒɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of siege engine?
The plural of siege engine is siege engines.

Words near siege engine in the dictionary

  1. Siegal
  2. Siegals
  3. Siegbahn unit
  4. Siegbahn units
  5. siege
  6. siege engine
  7. siege engines
  8. siege house
  9. siege houses
  10. siege mentalities
  11. siege mentality

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: siege engine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-siege engine.oga.

Cite this entry: “siege engine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/siege_engine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.