Word.ws English Dictionary

state of siege

state of siege noun: an exceptional legal condition in which constitutional limits on the powers of the government are suspended, usually owing to military necessity and implying martial law.

Noun

state of siege (plural states of siege)

  1. An exceptional legal condition in which constitutional limits on the powers of the government are suspended, usually owing to military necessity and implying martial law.
    • Several gentlemen of authority of the city of Belfast actually waited upon the Government and requested them not only to abolish the local police force but to proclaim a state of siege in the town of Belfast.1865 May 29, Sir Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet, “Constabulary Force (Ireland) Act Amendment Bill”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), volume 179, column 982
    • As soon as Nicaragua entered the war, Somoza declared a state of siege that remained in effect for four years.1995, David E. Whisnant, Rascally Signs in Sacred Places: The Politics of Culture in Nicaragua, page 116

Forms of state of siege

pluralstates of siege

Origin of state of siege

Calque of French état de siège, first codified in a 1791 law of the Constituent Assembly during the French Revolution as an aggravated condition of war justifying the subordination of the civilian government to military authorities. Extended to apply to internal rebellion by a French law of 1797; subsequently broadened again in 1849 to denote any political state of emergency.

Questions about state of siege

What does state of siege mean?
State of siege means an exceptional legal condition in which constitutional limits on the powers of the government are suspended, usually owing to military necessity and implying martial law.
What part of speech is state of siege?
State of siege is a noun.
What is the plural of state of siege?
The plural of state of siege is states of siege.

Words near state of siege in the dictionary

  1. state of nature
  2. State of New York
  3. State of Palestine
  4. state of play
  5. State of Qatar
  6. state of siege
  7. State of Tennessee
  8. state of the art
  9. State of the Union
  10. State of Vietnam
  11. State of Virginia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: state of siege (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.

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