Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who murders by surprise attack, especially one who carries out a plot to kill a prominent person.
- noun A member of a militant subgroup of Ismailis that in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries carried out political assassinations directed especially against Seljuk rule.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To murder; assassinate.
- noun One of the Assassins, a military and religious order in Syria, founded in Persia by Hassan ben Sabbah about the year 1090.
- noun One who undertakes, for a reward previously agreed on, to put another person to death by surprise or secret assault; hence, one who kills, or attempts to kill, by treacherous violence; a murderer.
- noun A breast-knot, or similar decoration worn in front.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who kills, or attempts to kill, by surprise or secret assault; one who treacherously murders any one unprepared for defense.
- transitive verb obsolete To assassinate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun historical A member of a Muslim militant group responsible for murdering Christian leaders during the
Crusades . - noun Someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
- noun Any ruthless killer.
- verb nonstandard To
assassinate .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a member of a secret order of Muslims (founded in the 12th century) who terrorized and killed Christian Crusaders
- noun a murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The word assassin comes from the Arabic word hashhashshin, derived from the word for the drug hashish.
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The word assassin is derived from the Arab hashshashin, which refers to a secret order of Muslim that terrorized the Christian crusaders by committing murder while under the influence of this potent drug.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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The word assassin is derived from the Arab hashshashin, which refers to a secret order of Muslim that terrorized the Christian crusaders by committing murder while under the influence of this potent drug.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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The word assassin is derived from the Arab hashshashin, which refers to a secret order of Muslim that terrorized the Christian crusaders by committing murder while under the influence of this potent drug.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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The word assassin is derived from the Arab hashshashin, which refers to a secret order of Muslim that terrorized the Christian crusaders by committing murder while under the influence of this potent drug.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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The term assassin in the stance of foreshadowing involves the broken knob twentieth century generally refers to the hired or on the gearshift of the Garp family's Volvo.
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The angle of the mysterious assassin is intriguing.
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Avi’s Second Review Forum 2009
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After the unexpected death of a beloved pope in the Vatican, an assassin is threatening to kill the four Preferiti — the cardinals most likely to take his place — one every hour until midnight, when an antimatter bomb (developed by fetching Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra) is scheduled to go off.
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Taking out members of this clan was never that difficult for him ... but now a deadly assassin is about to cross his path with a mission to kill him, fuelled by revenge!
Archive 2009-06-01 2009
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In contrast, I think that a concept like a WWII episode to save Hitler from a well-meaning assassin is fundamentally different from the cliche WWII episode.
mikeropology commented on the word assassin
An Ancient Arabic loanword originally meaning "hired killer".
January 31, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word assassin
A Sea of Words:
"A band of Ismaili Muslim fanatics living in Syria at the time of the Crusades whose goal was the creation of a new Fatimid caliphate. From a string of mountain fortresses, they were sent to terrorize orthodox Muslims and Christian Crusaders alike by Sheikh-al-Jabal, the Old Man of the Mountain, and subsequent leaders. The Assassins' campaign included the murder of politically important people, thus in English the term came to mean a politically motivated murderer."
(p. 93)
See also fedais.
October 20, 2008