encirclement

From encircle +‎ -ment.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɜː(ɹ)kəlmənt/

• Audio (Southern England)

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encirclement (countable and uncountable, plural encirclements)

1. The act of encircling or the state of being encircled
2. (military) The isolation of a target by the formation of a blockade around it
   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 9:

     Not only did it give the Russians an abiding fear of encirclement, whether by nomadic hordes or by nuclear-missile sites, but it also launched them on their relentless drive eastwards and southwards into Asia, and eventually collision with the British in India.