“Scorched earth,” historically, means destroying land to deprive the encroaching enemy of its use.
“I realized these rude people were encroaching upon my personal life—my own fault, mind you—for opening the door,” he said.
The parallels Hong Kong readers find between the encroaching Titans and China have made it a huge success there.
When he falls in love with human Grace, he must fight the encroaching winter and the change it will bring.
Or will this encroaching uneasiness with Obama stay limited to this one snapshot in time in this one Southern state?
Day by day, nearer came the menace; narrower and swifter still ran the deep black water strip between the encroaching ice-lines.
He had no thought of encroaching upon the lands of the Indians, or of erecting any forts in antagonism to them.
He thought the English were encroaching, and drove them away.
The encroaching British were working their way into every open water in America.
But, say others, do not his mission and his glory consist in going forward and attacking the work of God, and encroaching upon it?
early 14c., "acquire, get," from Old French encrochier "seize, fasten on, hang on (to), cling (to); hang up, suspend," literally "to catch with a hook," from en- "in" (see en- (1)) + croc "hook," from Old Norse krokr "hook" (see crook). Meaning "seize wrongfully" is from c.1400. Sense of "trespass" is first recorded 1530s. Related: Encroached; encroaches; encroaching.