You searched for: “assault”
assassinate, assail, assault, assault
assassinate (uh SAS uh nayt") (verb)
To murder (a prominent person) with a surprise attack, often for political reasons: "Someone did indeed assassinate President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963."
assail (uh SAYL) (verb)
To attack with or as if with violent blows: "A mugger tried to assail James on the dark street as he was walking home."
assault (uh SALT) (noun)
A violent physical or verbal attack: "Stacy was wanted by the police for assault because she attacked a man with her umbrella."
assault (uh SALT) (verb)
To attack with or as if with violent blows: "Paul was heard to verbally assault one of his co-workers."

It seems to be a bit unfair that the newspapers referred to the attempted shooting of a famous man as an attempt to assassinate him. Ordinary people have to be satisfied with being subject to an assault by someone attempting to assail them.

This entry is located in the following units: Confusing Words Clarified: Group A; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 8) sali-, salt-, -sili-, sult-, -salta- (page 1)
assault (s) (noun), assaults (pl)
1. A physical or criminal attack on a person or people; literally, leaping on: "To the horror of the audience and viewers on TV, the lion assaulted the lion tamer in the middle of the circus act."

"The robber was charged by the police with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon."

2. A military attack or onslaught: "The military forces were involved in assaults that lasted for several years."
This entry is located in the following unit: sali-, salt-, -sili-, sult-, -salta- (page 1)
assault (verb), assaults; assaulted; assaulting
1. To make a physical attack on a place or a person: The criminal was convicted of assaulting and robbing Warren in the parking lot of the store."

"Bernice accused Lewis of sexually assaulting her."

2. To use violent force or to bombard someone or the senses with something undesirable or unpleasant: "The ears of the people were assaulted by the loud music from the neighbor's apartment."
3. To carry out a military offensive against an enemy using weapons: "The unit of special forces parachuted into the camp and assaulted the gang and rescued the hostages that were kidnapped by the criminals."
This entry is located in the following unit: sali-, salt-, -sili-, sult-, -salta- (page 1)
Word Entries containing the term: “assault”
armed assault and holdup *
This entry is located in the following unit: Pleonasms or Tautological Redundancies (page 3)
assault and battery (s) (noun), assaults and batteries (pl)
A legal term for a crime of threatening someone together with the act of making physical contact with him or her: "When Mario and Leroy got into an argument in the store, Mario said he would knock Leroy down and spit on him and then he actually kicked Leroy in the left knee which caused him to fall down on the floor and then Mario was charged with assault and battery by the police when he was arrested."
This entry is located in the following unit: sali-, salt-, -sili-, sult-, -salta- (page 1)
Word Entries at Get Words containing the term: “assault”
rifle (s), rifles (pl); air rifle, air rifles; assault rifle, assault rifles (nouns)
1. A rifle is a firearm with a long rifled bore (spiral grooves), designed to fire bullets from the shoulder: "Hunters around the world use rifles to kill various wild-game animals to be used for food or for a so-called sport."

"The girl's father took his rifle out to go hunting for deer while her young brother took his air rifle, which uses air pressure to shoot small pellets, to shoot at some cans lined up on the fence."

2. An assault rifle is a weapon that can shoot many bullets quickly and which is designed for use by the military: "A unit of soldiers were armed with rifles."

"Today, the soldiers were having target practice with their assault rifles or assault weapons."

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group R + (page 2)