[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To subject to a blockade as an incident of war; to beset by a hostile force, so as to prevent ingress or egress.
c. 1680. in Somers, Tracts, I. 471. Those who were set to blockade the Castle.
1684. Scanderbeg Rediv., v. 95. To quarter round about Caminiec, and strictly Blockade that place.
1781. T. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 299. The enemy are … blockaded by land.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xx. 294. The port was … strictly blockaded.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III. xliii. 289. A state cannot blockade its own ports.
2. transf. and fig. To block up, obstruct.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 57. Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxxvii. All precautions to blockade his view were … abandoned.
1846. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., II. xix. 185. Every avenue to the hall was blockaded.
