Assault

//əˈsɔlt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A violent onset or attack with physical means, for example blows, weapons, etc. countable, uncountable

    "The army made an assault on the enemy."

  2. 2
    a threatened or attempted physical attack by someone who appears to be able to cause bodily harm if not stopped wordnet
  3. 3
    A violent verbal attack, for example with insults, criticism, and the like countable, uncountable

    "She launched a written assault on the opposition party."

  4. 4
    the crime of forcing a person to submit to sexual intercourse against his or her will wordnet
  5. 5
    An attempt to commit battery: a violent attempt, or willful effort with force or violence, to do hurt to another, but without necessarily touching the person, such as by raising a fist in a threatening manner, or by striking at the person and missing. countable, uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    close fighting during the culmination of a military attack wordnet
  2. 7
    The crime whose action is such an attempt. countable, singular, singular-only, uncountable
  3. 8
    An act that causes someone to apprehend imminent bodily harm (such as brandishing a weapon). countable, uncountable
  4. 9
    The tort whose action is such an act. countable, singular, singular-only, uncountable
  5. 10
    A non-competitive combat between two fencers. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To attack, physically or figuratively; to assail. transitive

    "Tom was accused of assaulting another man outside a nightclub."

  2. 2
    attack in speech or writing wordnet
  3. 3
    To threaten or harass. transitive
  4. 4
    attack someone physically or emotionally wordnet
  5. 5
    force (someone) to have sex against their will wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
attackassailbatteryrapeabuseaggravated assault

Example

More examples

"We were not prepared for the assault."

Etymology

From Middle English assaut, from Old French noun assaut, derived from the past participle of the verb assalir, from Late Latin assalīre, from Latin ad (“at, towards”) + salīre (“jump”). See also assail. Spelling Latinized around 1530 to add an l.

Related phrases

aggravated assaultamphibious assault shipassault and batteryassault at armsassault courseassault rifleassault weaponindecent assaultmeat assaultsexual assaultsexually assaulttubular assault

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.