Dictionary

assail en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /əˈseɪl/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English assailen, from Old French assaillir, assalir, from Late Latin assalīre, from Latin ad (“at, towards”) + salīre (“jump”). See also assault.

Meanings

1. (figuratively, sometimes, transitive) To attack with harsh words or violent force.
   • Muggers assailed them as they entered an alley.
   • Our ears were assailed by her joyous efforts on her new saxophone.
   • 2007, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Wizard of the Crow, Nairobo: East African Educational Publishers, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 64, He did not like being in crowds, foul smells galore assailing his nostrils.
   • With greedy force he gan the fort assayle, / Whereof he weend possesse soone to bee, / And win rich spoile of ransackt chastitee. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
   • "Unhappy woman!" he observed to himself as he walked down the platform of Templecombe station; "for the next six months or so those children will assail her in public with demands for an improper story!" 1914, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Story-teller”, in Beasts and Super-Beasts […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […], →OCLC, page 238:
   • [L]et us once again assail your ears, / That are so fortified against our story, / What we two nights have seen. c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
2. (figuratively, transitive) To overcome or successfully argue against; defeat.
   • "Yes," he said, half musing to himself, "I knew it must exist: the one explanation that accounts for everything and cannot be assailed. We have reached the bed-rock of truth at last." 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
   • We got married immediately after I finished my work […] which should have been the happiest day of my life. […] But, it was not my happiest day. I was assailed by doubts. 1942, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 14, in Dust Tracks on a Road, New York, N.Y.: Arno Press and The New York Times, published 1969, page 258:

Forms

Deriveds

assailant · assailment · unassailing · reassail · unassailed · assailable · assailer · unassailability

Relateds

assault

Synonyms

barrage

Translations (39)

bg нахвърлям се (to attack violently) · gl atacar (to attack violently) · oc assalir (to attack violently) · cs zaútočit (to attack violently) · hu megtámad (to attack violently) · nrf assailli (to attack violently) · kk тиісу (to attack violently) · ru напа́сть (to attack violently) · ja 襲撃する (to attack violently) · cmn 攻擊 /攻击 (to attack violently) · sc imbistiri (to attack violently) · gl asaltar (to attack violently) · hu megrohan (to attack violently) · mi uruhi (to attack violently) · de angreifen (to attack violently) · mi whakatorotoro (to attack violently) · kk шүйілу (to attack violently) · la īnstō (to attack violently) · sdn imbistì (to attack violently) · fr assaillir (to attack violently) · sc appiliare (to attack violently) · it assalire (to attack violently) · tr saldırmak (to attack violently) · bg нападам (to attack violently) · es aturdir (to attack violently) · es atacar (to attack violently) · cs napadnout (to attack violently) · la incessō (to attack violently) · sdc assarí (to attack violently) · sdn gjumpì (to attack violently) · fi käydä kimppuun (to attack violently) · ru напада́ть (to attack violently) · sc carrabusai (to attack violently) · sc carraxai (to attack violently) · pt investir (to attack violently) · es asaltar (to attack violently) · tr taarruz etmek (to attack violently) · cs napadat (to attack violently) · mi auta (to attack violently)