Picture a group standing in one place with attackers all the way around them: no direction is clear, and pressure arrives from every side at once. That ring is the word. In today's news writing the ring stays and the attackers change — now they are reporters, critics and problems, and the person in the middle is a president or a company.
可以想成一群人站在原地，四周整圈都是攻過來的人，沒有一個方向是空的。embattled 講的就是這個「被圍在中間」的畫面。新聞裡用在總統或公司身上時，圍住他的不是軍隊，而是批評、調查和壓力，但那個圈子還在——人還是站在中間，還是每個方向都要應付。
From the word’s history
embattled is embattle ('to equip as for battle') plus -ed, with battle sitting inside it. The word starts on a battlefield, and the modern news use is carried over from there.
embattled 是 embattle（擺開陣勢準備打仗）加上 -ed，裡面看得到 battle（戰役）。所以它從戰場出發，後來才被拿去形容處境艱難的人和公司。
Wiktionary, "embattled"
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