[
UK
/ɐsˈeɪl/
]
[ US /əˈseɪɫ/ ]
[ US /əˈseɪɫ/ ]
VERB
-
launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with
Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II
Serbian forces assailed Bosnian towns all week -
attack someone physically or emotionally
Nightmares assailed him regularly
The mugger assaulted the woman -
attack in speech or writing
The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker
How To Use assail In A Sentence
- This case for a belief module is far from unassailable, and indeed every one of these prongs is still vigorously disputed, but the whole picture is compelling.
- From the dark streets of the city, whether lit by a single streetlamp or brazenly flashing neon signs, to the desolate coastline, where Marlowe is first blackjacked by an unknown assailant, there is no safe haven from disorder and danger. Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood
- The victim was unable to give many details about her assailant because the attack was over in seconds.
- Yet the potential role of friendly bacteria in promoting digestive health is becoming increasingly unassailable. Times, Sunday Times
- The students assailed the speaker with questions.
- According to first findings, the guard was shot down with eight or nine bullets from a machine gun fired by an unknown number of assailants who had approached him.
- Rather Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, both discernably more open to Russian influence than Yushchenko (who was poisoned by unidentified assailants on the occasion of his last run for President), will face each other in the runoff. Christopher Herbert and Victoria Kataoka: Foreign Affairs Roundup
- Unlike the buccaneers, who had fired high to cripple their enemies above decks, the French fifed low to smash the hull of their assailant. Captain Blood
- The loss of the barbican had also this unfortunate effect, that, notwithstanding the superior height of the castle walls, the besieged could not see from them, with the same precision as before, the operations of the enemy; for some straggling underwood approached so near the sallyport of the outwork, that the assailants might introduce into it whatever force they thought proper, not only under cover, but even without the knowledge of the defenders. Ivanhoe
- Stepping out of the wooden portals, your nostrils are assailed by the pungent smell of leaf-wrapped dosai.