Assail

Definition: Assail

Assail

Verb

1. Attack someone physically or emotionally; "The mugger assaulted the woman"; "Nightmares assailed him regularly".

2. Launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities with, as in warfare; "Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II"; "Serbian forces assailed Bosnian towns all week".

3. Attack verbally, in speech or writing; "The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker".

Date "assail" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Synonyms: Assail

Synonyms: assault (v), attack (v), lash out (v), round (v), set on (v), snipe (v). (additional references)

Antonym: defend (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Attack	Assail, impugn; malign (detract).
	Verb: attack, assault, assail; invade; set upon, fall upon; charge, impugn, break a lance with, enter the lists.
Detraction	Impugn; assail, attack; oppose; denounce, accuse.
Pain	Maltreat, bite, snap at, assail; smite; (punish).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Assail

English words defined with "assail": Assailed, Assailing ♦ Bepommel, beset ♦ reassail ♦ set upon ♦ To fall on, To run amuck ♦ unassailable, untouchable. (references)

Specialty definitions using "assail": Cavern or Cave, Chimney, Crawfish, Crocodile ♦ Letter, Lighthouse ♦ Stain. (references)

Etymologies containing "assail": iambus. (references)

Author	Quotation
Charlotte Bronte	Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.
Grenville Kleiser	Take your stand boldly upon Truth, and the error assail you upon a thousand sides you need no fear no man.
John Dryden	Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
Samuel Johnson	There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Abraham Lincoln	1861-1865	The Government will not assail you.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Assail" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 60.00% of the time. "Assail" is used about 25 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	60%	15	90,616
Lexical Verb (base form)	40%	10	111,207
Total	100.00%	25	N/A

Expressions using "assail": assail smb. with blows ♦ assail smb. with questions. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "assail"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sulmoj (assault, attack, attempt, charge, dog, fall on, fall to, fly at, gain ground, gun for, harass, hit, hold up, jump, lace into, lash, light into, mug, oppugn, raid, waylay), mbyt (asphyxiate, blanket, choke, deluge, drown, jugulate, smother, stifle, strangle, suffocate, throttle, wreck). (various references)

Arabic		‏هاجم بعنف (batter, inveigh, oversteer, rave, savage, storm), ‏غير على. (various references)

Bulgarian		обсипвам (beset, besiege, deluge, heap, intersperse, load, pepper, smother, sow, spot, strew, stud), нахвърлям се (fly, fly at, leap up, lunge, pitch into, pounce), залавям се с (address oneself to, engage in, settle down), емвам (rail at), подбирам (cull, extract, go for smb., herd, match, pick, pick out, pick over, rail at, round up, select, winnow). (various references)

Chinese		袭击 (Assailed, Assailing, RAID, Raided, Raiding). (various references)

Czech		přepadnout (assault, mug, raid, steal, stick up, swoop, waylay). (various references)

Farsi		هجوم اوردن بر, حمله کردن (Impinge, Layon, Pop, Souse). (various references)

Finnish		hätyyttää (harass, molest, press). (various references)

French		assaillir (assault). (various references)

German		angriff (access, aggression, assault, attack, charge, offence, offense, onset, onslaught, pounce, raid, strike, ward, whammy), angreifen (affect, affront, assault, attack, break into, charge, clutch, contest, draw on, eat into, engage, grab, grasp, grip, have at, impugn, launch into, offend, seize, tackle, to affront, to assault, to attack, to offend, touch, undermine, weaken, weather), anfallen (accrue, accumulate, arise, assault, attack, be incurred, savage, set upon, to accrue), befallen (affect, affected, assault, attack, attaint, befall, beset, diseased, grip, infest, infested, overcome, seize, seized with, smite, strike), überschütten (besiege, cover, engulf, flood, heap, overwhelm, pour, shower, tip, to shower, whelm). (various references)

Greek		προσβάλλω (affect, afflict, affront, assault, attack, blackguard, encroach, insult, mob, offend, outrage, shock, slight), επιτίθεμαι εναντίον (fall on), επιτίθεμαι (aggress, assai, assault, attack, beat, beset, come at, go for, have at, lash out, make an attack пn, make an attack οn, set on). (various references)

Hebrew		לתקוף (assault, attack, savage, seize), ל�"תקיף (assault, attack, beset, let fly, set on, slash, strike, tear into, tie into), ל�"סתער (attack, rush, storm, strike, surge, tear into), ל�'ולל על (accuse). (various references)

Hungarian		megtámad (assault, attack, combat, impugn, to advance against, to assail, to assault, to contest, to corrode, to impugn, to raid, to set about, to top off, to visit, to wade in), megrohan (to assail, to infest, to jump upon, to make a dash at, to mob, to raid, to rush). (various references)

Indonesian		menyerang (beset, besiege, oppugn, zap). (various references)

Italian		attaccare (adherence, affix, annex, append, assault, attach, attack, become attached, begin, bind, catch on, cling, connect, engage, fasten, fix, foist, glue, hang, hitch, infect, lead off, link, pass on, pin, pitch into, plug in, put up, stick, stick in, strike, strike up, tie), assalire (assault, attack, beset, mob, raid, rankle, set about, set upon, storm, violate), investire (give, invest, place, put, run down, run over, sink, vest). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		敵に掛かる (to assail the enemy). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		てきにかかる (to assail the enemy). (various references)

Manx		soiagh (placing, raid, set; attack). (various references)

Pig Latin		assailay

Portuguese		atacar (assault, attack, bayonet, charge, come upon, emote, hammer, invade, lunge, mob, mug, oppugn, prey, rocket, run at, strike, strike out), assaltar (assault, attack, beset, break into, burgle, foray, garotte, garrotte, hijack, lay hands on, oppugn, overrun, overtake, rob, strike), criticar (animadvert, attack, carp, censure, clapperclaw, comment, complain, criticize, find fault, impeach, knock, land on, review, slash, vet). (various references)

Romanian		asalta (assault, attack, beset, bombard, inundate, storm), lovi (attack, batter, beat, befall, buffet, bump, catch, clap, crack, cuff, cut, dab, drive, drub, fib, flap, hammer, harm, hit, hurt, impact, infect, injure, jar, knock, lash, lay hands on, lunge at, Pat, put, reach, seize, shock, slam, slap, smite, spank, strike, swat, swinge, switch, tap, thrust, thump, touch, whack, whip, wipe, wound, wrong), invada (invade, overrun, raid into, rush). (various references)

Russian		резко критиковать (flay, knock, pick to pieces), нападать (assault, assaulted, fall foul of, fall on, fly, inveigh, lunge). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		vršiti napad, saletati (besiege, importune, pester, ply, solicit, urge), oštro kritikovati. (various references)

Spanish		asaltar (assault, attack, beset, hold up, lay into, raid, rush, storm). (various references)

Swedish		angripa (affect, assault, attack, come at, impugn, invade, light into), bestorma (attack, besiege), överfalla (assault, attack, mug, set on, set upon), överösa (overwhelm, smother). (various references)

Thai		โจมตี (assault, sic, tie into), ก่อกวน (faze). (various references)

Turkish		saldırmak (aggress, assault, attack, charge, come at, come down on, come for, come on, come upon, descend, fall on, fly at, fly at smb., fly out at smb., go at, hit at, invade, jump on, lam into, lash into, lash out, lay about, let smb. have it, level off, level out, light into, lunge, make a dash, make a dead-set at, offend, pounce, press home, ride atilt at smb., round on, run at, run atilt at smb., rush, sally out, set up, storm, sweep down on, swoop, swoop down, swoop on, thrust, turn on, turn upon, wade in, wade into, walk into), hücum etmek (assault, attack, charge, fall on, make an assault, raid, rush, storm, thrust, thrust into, zap), dil uzatmak (attack, defame, go for, malign, rail, sail into). (various references)

Ukrainian		різко критикувати (pan), наступати (advance, step on), накидатися (bounce at, fall on, lay into, pitch into, sail into, set at, strike out), засипати (bestrew, bombard, deluge, shower, stud, swamp), атакувати (assault, attack). (various references)

Welsh		ymosod ar (assault, attack), rhuthro ar. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	adgredi, adgrediar, adgressi, adgressuras, adgressus, appetentes, appetitus, appetunt, appetuntur, circumvenio, incidam, incidamque, incidas, incidat, incidebant, incidemus, incident, incidentes, incidere, incideremus, inciderent, inciderit, inciderunt, incidet, incidetis, incidi, incidissemus, incidisti, incidit, inciditque, incidunt, incurro, ingruo, inpugnabant, inpugnans, inpugnaverunt, inpugnent, insequor, lacessentes, oppugno. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "assail": assailable, assailant, assailants, assailed, assailer, assailers, assailing, assails. (additional references)
	Words ending with "assail": reassail, wassail. (additional references)
	Words containing "assail": reassailed, reassailing, reassails, unassailabilities, unassailability, unassailable, unassailableness, unassailablenesses, unassailably, unassailed, wassailed, wassailer, wassailers, wassailing, wassails. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Assail" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: absail, Asadillo, asagi, asai, asaid, asail, asal, ascain, Ascanio, Ascil, Ashai, asil, asisakid, Asmal, Aspal, assa, Assaad, Assadi, assain, assais, Assal, assi, assial, Assoli, Asvall, Ausseil, Azali, Bassai, essal, Hassawi, Kassmaul, Massacio, Massai, Ossaia, Sassanid, vassalic. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "assail" (pronounced usā"l)
3	-s ā" l	sail, sale.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-i-l-s-s"
	-1 letter: alias, assai, sails, salsa, sials, sisal.
	-2 letters: aals, ails, alas, lass, sail, sals, sial.
	-3 letters: aal, aas, ail, ais, ala, als, ass, las, lis, sal, sis.
	-4 letters: aa, ai, al, as, is, la, li, si.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-i-l-s-s"
	+1 letter: aliases, assails, dalasis, salamis, salinas, salivas, salvias, wassail.
	+2 letters: analysis, aplasias, assailed, assailer, baalisms, galliass, malaises, nasalise, reassail, sahiwals, salaries, salpians, salsilla, staysail, wassails.
	+3 letters: aisleways, alarmisms, alarmists, alkalises, alkalosis, annalists, arbalists, assailant, assailers, assailing, balisaurs, basilicas, cabalisms, cabalists, calisayas, canalises, catalysis, classical, dysplasia, fatalisms, fatalists, gasaliers, halakists, headsails, kielbasas, mainsails, malvasias, nasalised, nasalises, nasalizes, orinasals, palisades, palliasse, paralysis, pashalics, pashaliks, passional, reassails, sailboats, salacious, salariats, salivates, salsillas, shillalas, sialidans, stapelias, staysails, talismans, thalassic, wassailed, wassailer.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.