assail

«assail» in Mova's school dictionary: to attack them violently — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (assail, assails, assailed, assailing)

meaning for a pupil

1) (formal) To assail someone is to attack them violently. tree →

2) To be assailed by doubts, worries, smells or questions is to have them come at you strongly from all sides. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history and stories, armies assail a castle. In everyday writing, «assailed by a terrible smell» or «assailed by questions from reporters». In The Wind in the Willows Mole is assailed by fear in the Wild Wood and later by the smell of his old home.

examples

• The castle was assailed by enemy troops. tree →
• Mole was assailed by the smell of his old home. tree →
• She was assailed by doubts before the exam. tree →
• Reporters assailed the footballer with questions. tree →
• Strange noises assailed them in the dark wood. tree →
• The ship was assailed by storms. tree →
• Misfortune often assails us from an unexpected quarter. tree →

note

Regular verb: assailed. Noun for the attacker: assailant. Formal; simpler words: attack, hit, bother.

In the corpora

• The floods of Belial assailed me.
• The cords of Death compassed me, and the floods of Belial assailed me.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «assail» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.