assailant

CEFRC1

/əˈseɪlənt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person who attacks someone.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A hostile critic or opponent.

Examples

  • Tom struggled with his assailant and managed to escape.

  • Tom tried to fight back his assailant.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Assailing; attacking.

  2. Someone who attacks or assails another violently, or criminally.

More examples

In context

  • Witnesses provided detailed descriptions of the assailant.

  • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne and Son and T. Cadell, Volume 5, Book 9, Chapter 3, p. 41, […] the assailants of the quill have their honour as much at heart as the assailants of the sword.

  • I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire, And with a kind of umber smirch my face; The like do you; so shall we pass along, And never stir assailants.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The police quickly arrested the blank who attacked the woman.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Old French assaillant, from the verb assaillir, from Late Latin assalīre, from Latin ad (“to, towards”) + salīre (“to jump”). Equivalent to assail + -ant.