assail
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
I watched this, sitting two rows behind Trump, as he turned and walked out to face the cameras and assail the process that had brought him there.
From Slate ● Jan. 10, 2025
The problem is that Walz's cheery Midwestern normalcy has an authenticity to it that's hard to assail.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2024
And once Catherine’s cancer was revealed, British media were quick to assail their counterparts across the pond, accusing American tabloids and media figures of recklessly amplifying the more outlandish rumors.
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2024
‘All is vain, you say, if he has the Ring. Why should he think it not vain to assail us, if we have it?’
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Meanwhile, the document assails America’s friends across the Atlantic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
"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
It’s never especially funny, not because it’s a dystopian downer whose laughs are supposed to stick in your throat, but because it clumsily assails and misses a series of obvious targets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2022
Simone Biles blasts USA Gymnastics’ settlement proposal; Aly Raisman assails ‘massive cover up’
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2020
If temptation assails the beasts they flee it, whispering fearfully and warningly to one another: "The Law! the Law!"
From Morals and the Evolution of Man by Nordau, Max Simon
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
Roberts once signed on to a Kagan dissent that assailed the shadow docket.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
But she also assailed her colleagues for failing to explain themselves.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2026
Ekulona’s Julie is assailed as much by Hedda’s slights as by her indifference.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
It was the face of one who has been assailed by a great fear or anguish, but has mastered it and now is quiet.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Only in America can one get rich by assailing the wealthy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 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
HLA supporters have spent weeks assailing Szabo’s previous cost estimates for the measure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 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.
