• IPA: /əˈseɪl/

assail (assails, present participle assailing; past and past participle assailed)

1. (transitive) To attack with harsh words or violent force.

   Muggers assailed them as they entered an alley.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book I, canto VI, page 76 ↗:

     So when he ſaw his flatt’ring artes to ſayle, / And ſubtile engines bett from batteree, / With greedy force he gan the fort aſſayle, / Whereof he weend poſſeſe ſoone to bee / And win rich ſpoile of ranſackt chaſtitee.

   • 1897, Saki [Hector Hugh Munro], “The Storyteller”:

     For the next six months or so those children will assail her in public with demands for an improper story!

• French: assaillir
• German: angreifen
• Italian: assalire
• Portuguese: investir
• Russian: напада́ть
• Spanish: atacar, asaltar, aturdir