siege engine

English

A trebuchet, a kind of siege engine

Noun

siege engine (plural siege engines)

1. (historical) A large weapon of war used, during medieval times, to batter fortifications.

Synonyms

• military engine
• siege weapon

Hyponyms

• ballista
• battering ram, ram
• carroballista
• catapult
• mangonel
• onager
• oxybeles
• polybolos
• scorpio, scorpion
• siege tower
• sow
• trebuchet

Translations

large weapon of war to batter fortifications

• Estonian: piiramismasin
• Finnish: piirityskone
• French: machine de siège (fr) f, engin de siège (fr) m, arme de siège (fr) f
• German: Belagerungsgerät n, Belagerungsmaschine f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: πολιορκητική μηχανή m (poliorkitikí michaní)
• Polish: machina oblężnicza f
• Spanish: arma de asedio f

Further reading

• siege engine on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “siege engine”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.