assail
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]FromMiddle Englishassailen,fromOld Frenchassaillir, assalir,fromLate Latinassalīre,fromLatinad(“at, towards”)+salīre(“jump”).See alsoassault.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]assail(third-person singular simple presentassails,present participleassailing,simple past and past participleassailed)
- (transitive)Toattackwith harsh words or violent force (alsofiguratively).
- Muggersassailedthem as they entered an alley.
- Our ears wereassailedby her joyous efforts on her new saxophone.
- 1590,Edmund Spenser,“Book I, Canto VI”, inThe Faerie Queene.[…],London:[…][John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC,pages76-77:
- c.1599–1602(date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene i]:
- […]let us once againassailyour ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.
- 1942,Zora Neale Hurston,chapter 14, inDust Tracks on a Road[2],New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, published1969,page258:
- 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 wasassailedby doubts.
- 2007,Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o,Wizard of the Crow,Nairobo: East African Educational Publishers, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 64,[3]
- He did not like being in crowds, foul smells galoreassailinghis nostrils.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to attack violently
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Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sel-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Rhymes:English/eɪl
- Rhymes:English/eɪl/2 syllables
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- en:Violence