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That which fortifies and defends from assault; that which secures safety; a defense or bulwark.

To resist or oppose effectually; as, to repel an assault, an encroachment, or an argument. [He] gently repelled their entreaties. Hawthorne.

To repel; to beat or drive back; as, to repulse an assault; to repulse the enemy. Complete to have discovered and repulsed Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend. Milton.

One who ruffles; a swaggerer; a bully; a ruffian. Assaults, if not murders, done at his own doors by that crew of rufflers. Milton.

That quality or condition of being salient; a leaping; a springing forward; an assaulting.

An assaulter whose weapon is a sand bag. See Sand bag, under Sand.

To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps. W. P. Craighill. Both assaults carried on by sapping. Tatler.

An assault. [Obs.]

Serving as an aid in clambering; as, a scaling ladder, used in assaulting a fortified place.

To assault; to make an attack. Bacon. Cassio hath here been set on in the dark. Shak. -- To set out, to begin a journey or course; as, to set out for London, or from London; to set out in business;to set out in life or the world. -- To set to, to apply one's self to. -- To set up. (a) To begin business or a scheme of…

Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous. "In sharp contest of battle." Milton. A sharp assault already is begun. Dryden.

To cover with, or as with, a shield; to cover from danger; to defend; to protect from assault or injury. Shouts of applause ran ringing through the field, To see the son the vanquished father shield. Dryden. A woman's shape doth shield thee. Shak.

or in haste. -- To spring on or upon, to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.

much importance to; as, to stand upon security; to stand upon ceremony. (d) To attack; to assault. [A Hebraism] "So I stood upon him, and slew him." 2 Sam. i. 10. -- To stand with, to be consistent with. "It stands with reason that they should be rewarded liberally." Sir J. Davies.

One who stones; one who makes an assault with stones.

A violent assault on a fortified place; a furious attempt of troops to enter and take a fortified place by scaling the walls, forcing the gates, or the like.

from Storm, v. Storming party (Mil.), a party assigned to the duty of making the first assault in storming a fortress.

reënforcement; as, he gave his family a good support, the support of national credit; the assaulting column had the support of a battery. Points of support (Arch.), the horizontal area of the solids of a building, walls, piers, and the like, as compared with the open or vacant spaces. -- Right of support (Law), an eas…

An attack; an assault. One thrust at your pure, pretended mechanism. Dr. H. More.

or defend with success; to prove to be valid; to assert convincingly; to sustain against assault; as, to vindicate a right, claim, or title.