assail
verb (used with object)
to attack vigorously or violently; assault.
were assailing
-
past progressiveof assail.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
At the time, lawmakers were assailing the bank for opening millions of accounts without customers’ permission.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 20, 2017
Dick did not shake this Republican influence until he had fought with the Marines in World War I, returned to Yale, and become aroused by the way Republicans were assailing Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations.
From Time Magazine Archive
All this time the British artillerymen were assailing the sharpshooters with shot and shell, trying their best to drive them off the side of the hill.
From The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 53, November 11, 1897 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Julia Truitt Bishop
Other fiercer and wilder peoples, like the Huns, were assailing them in the east and pushing them forward.
From The World War and What was Behind It Or, the Story of the Map of Europe by Louis Paul Bénézet
Some were swimming about in front of him, carefully keeping out of reach, while others were assailing his back.
From The Land of the Kangaroo Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through the Great Island Continent by Thomas Wallace Knox
