James BamfordP. G. WodehouseAlexander DarlinBram StokerTom EwingEdgar Rice Burroughs
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If you're assailed by doubts about the word assail, allow us to set your mind at ease by providing some surety. Assail comes, by way of Anglo-French, from the Latin verb assilire ("to leap upon"), which in turn comes from the Latin verb salire, meaning "to leap." (Salire is the root of a number of English words related to jumping and leaping, such as somersault and sally, as well as assault, a synonym of assail.) When assail was first used in the 13th century, it meant "to make a violent physical attack upon." By the early 15th century, English speakers were using the term to mean "to attack with words or arguments." Now the verb can apply to any kind of aggressive encounter, even if it is not necessarily violent or quarrelsome, as in "Upon entering the room, we were assailed by a horrible odor."
Synonyms
Examples of assail in a Sentence
Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2024
Trump has repeatedly assailed the network on the campaign trail over the episode and has threatened to revoke CBS’s broadcasting license if elected.
—Reuters, NBC News, 31 Oct. 2024
Matt Walsh, a far-right media personality, wrote a series of posts on the social media platform X assailing the notion of women working as Secret Service agents.
—Hadas Gold, CNN, 17 July 2024
Other images included newspaper headlines assailing Trump for language critics have said invokes Nazi or other racially inflammatory rhetoric.
—Akayla Gardner and Randall Williams / Bloomberg, TIME, 1 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for assail 
Dictionary Entries Near assail
Cite this Entry
“Assail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assail. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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