Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who attacks another.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Assaulting; attacking; invading with violence. Milton.
  • In heraldry, same as salient.
  • noun One who assails, attacks, or assaults.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Assailing; attacking.
  • noun One who, or that which, assails, attacks, or assaults; an assailer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone who attacks or assails another violently, or criminally; an attacker.
  • noun figuratively, by extension A hostile critic or opponent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who attacks

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French asaillant, from the verb asaillir ("to jump on"), from Latin assaliō, itself from ad ("to, towards") + saliō ("to jump").

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Examples

Comments

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  • That poor little bug looks like his bottom is hurting.

    December 25, 2009