blockading

verb

present participle of blockade
1
as in guarding
to disallow entry into (a place) by means of a physical barrier at the entry point the militant protestors blockaded the whole area around city hall

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in besieging
to surround (as a fortified place) with armed forces for the purpose of capturing or preventing commerce and communication blockaded the city until it surrendered

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of blockading In July, Houthi forces began blockading the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the corridor linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, in response to renewed Saudi strikes on Yemen. — Frank Ahrens, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026 With just over 100 days until election day, the onetime border-blockading logger faces a steep fundraising climb, a sprawling statewide build-out and Maine’s pivotal role in Democrats’ bid for Senate control. — Kimberlee Kruesi, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2026 Britain responded with a war-footing, blockading the Bay of Naples. — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 15 June 2026 In 2003 and 2005, demonstrators blockading La Paz in protest over foreign designs on their country's natural gas reserves toppled two pro-Western governments, paving the way for the rise of former President Evo Morales, the founder of MAS. — ABC News, 27 May 2026 Iran had to shut in its own wells this month after the United States started blockading the strait. — David Goldman, CNN Money, 27 May 2026 But Iran is blockading the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. — David Frum, The Atlantic, 20 May 2026 Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil passed through before the war, and America is blockading Iranian ports. — Sheikh Saaliq, Chicago Tribune, 16 May 2026 Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where a fifth of the world's oil passed through before the war, and America is blockading Iranian ports. — Sheikh Saaliq, Arkansas Online, 16 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for blockading
  1. guarding
  2. besieging
  3. attacking
Verb
  • At trainings—held online, and in kitchens, basements, and alleyways—people were taught what to do if they were denied an acta, and how to handle the militares guarding the premises.
    — Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker, 20 July 2026
  • There is a scene where a couple of the characters who were guarding the portal had embroidery in their shoes.
    — Rachel Elspeth Gross, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026
Definition of guarding
Verb
  • This week’s ruling is the latest development in the long-running legal saga, which launched in the wake of resident complaints that the autonomous vehicle company’s round-the-clock operation was besieging them with noise, light and traffic.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2026
  • Robert Pattinson plays Antinous, the most aggressive of the suitors besieging Penelope.
    — Valentina Colosimo, Vanity Fair, 14 July 2026
Definition of besieging
Verb
  • Iran has bombarded several of its neighbors’ data centers, and the United States responded by attacking one of Iran’s.
    — David Goldman, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2026
  • That’s in stark contrast to their arachnid cousins, spiders, whose females that tend to be violent, attacking and eating the males.
    — Christa Lesté-Lasserre, Scientific American, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of attacking

Browse Nearby Words

blockades
blockading
blockage
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Cite this Entry

“Blockading.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blockading. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of blockading for Spanish Speakers

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