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One who, or that which, assails, attacks, or assaults; an assailer. An assailant of the church. Macaulay.

person who first attacks or makes an aggression; he who begins hostility or a quarrel; an assailant. The insolence of the aggressor is usually proportioned to the tameness of the sufferer. Ames.

One who assaults, or violently attacks; an assailant. E. Hall.

An assailant; also, a temper. [Obs.]

willing to destroy; implacable; desperately hostile; flagitious; as, deadly enemies. Thy assailant is quick, skillful, and deadly. Shak.

the side of an assailing body. They threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants. W. Irwing.

One who invades; an assailant; an encroacher; an intruder.

wn. (a) To strike down; to fell; to prostrate by a blow or by blows; as, to knock down an assailant. (b) To assign to a bidder at an auction, by a blow or knock; to knock off. -- To knock in the head, or on the head, to stun or kill by a blow upon the head; hence, to put am end to; to defeat, as a scheme or project; t…

or in the floor of a gallery or the roof of a portal, shooting or dropping missiles upen assailants attacking the base of the walls. Also, the construction of such defenses, in general, when of this character. See Illusts. of Battlement and Castle.

Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence, used in attacking; -- opposed to defensive; as, an offensive war; offensive weapons. League offensive and defensive, a leaque that requires all the parties to it to make war together against any foe, and to defend one another if attacked.

To commit rape upon; to ravish. raped first by their assailant, and then by the Justice system. Corresponds to 2nd rape, n. 5. To rape and ren. See under Rap, v. t., to snatch.

back; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to repel an enemy or an assailant. Hippomedon repelled the hostile tide. Pope. They repelled each other strongly, and yet attracted each other strongly. Macaulay.

dearly, to cause much loss to those who take one's life, as by killing a number of one's assailants. -- To sell (anything) out, to dispose of it wholly or entirely; as, he had sold out his corn, or his interest in a business.

. To catch a tartar, to lay hold of, or encounter, a person who proves too strong for the assailant. [Colloq.]

Capable of being held, naintained, or defended, as against an assailant or objector, or againts attempts to take or process; as, a tenable fortress, a tenable argument. If you have hitherto concealed his sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still. Shak. I would be the last man in the world to give up his cause when…

An assailant. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.