assail
Americanverb (used with object)
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assails,
present (3rd person singular)
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assailed,
past participle, past
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assailing
present participle
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to attack vigorously or violently; assault.
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to attack with arguments, criticism, ridicule, abuse, etc..
to assail one's opponent with slander.
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to undertake with the purpose of mastering.
He assailed his studies with new determination.
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to impinge upon; make an impact on; beset.
His mind was assailed by conflicting arguments.
The light assailed their eyes.
verb
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to attack violently; assault
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to criticize or ridicule vehemently, as in argument
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to beset or disturb
his mind was assailed by doubts
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to encounter with the intention of mastering
to assail a problem
to assail a difficult mountain ridge
Synonym Usage
See attack.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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assailablenessnoun
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assailernoun
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assailmentnoun
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assailableadjective
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unassailedadjective
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unassailingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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assailsimple
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assailssimple
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have assailedperfect
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has assailedperfect
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am assailingprogressive
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are assailingprogressive
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is assailingprogressive
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have been assailingperfect progressive
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has been assailingperfect progressive
Past
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assailedsimple
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had assailedperfect
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was assailingprogressive
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were assailingprogressive
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had been assailingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of assail
1175–1225; Middle English asaylen < Old French asalir < Late Latin assalīre, equivalent to Latin as- as- + salīre to leap, spring
Explanation
To assail is to attack or assault — with throwing stars, fists, words or, less tangibly but just as violently, with troubles or doubts. Believe it or not, assail evolved from the ancient Latin word assilire, which means "to jump on." So picture an attacker jumping on you, throwing punches and maybe some insults, too. Because assail also means to ridicule or heap your worries upon someone. As novelist Charlotte Bronte noted, “Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.” Think on that.
Vocabulary lists containing assail
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Othello
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But sociologists in the scholar-activist mold note that Du Bois also believed in using sociological truth in the pursuit of activism, promising in 1906 to “never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Musk found that cartoonist’s tweet and called his ban “insane,” inspiring his followers to assail r/comics.
From Slate ● Mar. 13, 2025
In Germany emerged so-called "Herod games" in which people would reportedly stage mock attacks on churches and assail bystanders with inflated animal bladders to ridicule the cruel absurdity of the Judean king.
From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2024
Go ahead, criticize the Biden administration and assail its record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2024
If we make no answer, the Enemy may move Men of his rule to assail King Brand, and Dáin also.’
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Meanwhile, the document assails America’s friends across the Atlantic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
Baby Stone Gorillas, “Keep Goin” The white-hot L.A. rap group assails a soul sample on “Keep Goin,” its members jumping in and out of frame as they pass the baton with an uncanny chemistry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2022
"Shaming personalizes political life; it assails individuals for injustices that are historically, socially and politically organized," political theorist Wendy Brown, who teaches social science at the Institute for Advanced Study, told Salon by email.
From Salon ● May 9, 2022
He assails the sanctification of Malcolm X, saying that his most prominent biographer, the late Columbia University professor Manning Marable, “accords his hero a stature in memory that he lacked in history.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2021
Executive Mansion October 15, 1864 Hamlet’s thoughts, his moods, fit the conflict that assails our country.
From Voices from the Past by Paul Alexander Bartlett
The competitive threat posed by cheaper Chinese substitutes has once again assailed semiconductor stocks, leading to dramatic falls in some of the biggest memory chip makers in Asia on Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Raman also assailed Bass over the fire, the worst in the city’s history.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
He did not respond to a detailed list of questions but assailed the requests in two posts on X, where he has 1.8 million followers.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2026
But she also assailed her colleagues for failing to explain themselves.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2026
But Sauron of Mordor assailed them, and they made the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and the hosts of Gil-galad and Elendil were mustered in Arnor.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
He has already moved on from assailing the frontier labs to milking them by selling them compute at a steep markup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Horvath, 43, has been one of the mayor’s most outspoken critics over the past year, assailing her record on homelessness and last year’s Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2026
GM went full speed ahead, pouring money into national ad campaigns assailing things like men eating tofu.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2025
For his part, Fauci—a veteran of numerous appearances before Congress—held his ground, assailing accusations made against him as “seriously distorted,” “absolutely false,” and “simply preposterous.”
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 3, 2024
“Well, thank God Miss Annie has left for a while. Now perhaps I can play my lute without her rasping denunciations assailing me from across the alley.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
