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ASSAILANT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Someone who attacks
Synonyms:
aggressor; assailant; assaulter; attacker
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("assailant" is a kind of...):
offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assailant"):
ambusher (an attacker who waits in a concealed position to launch a surprise attack)
avenger; retaliator (someone who takes vengeance)
beast; brute; savage; wildcat; wolf (a cruelly rapacious person)
bludgeoner (an assailant who uses a bludgeon)
bully; hooligan; roughneck; rowdy; ruffian; tough; yob; yobbo; yobo (a cruel and brutal fellow)
harasser; harrier (a persistent attacker)
iconoclast (someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions)
marauder; piranha; predator; vulture (someone who attacks in search of booty)
night rider; nightrider (member of a secret mounted band in United States South after the American Civil War; committed acts of intimidation and revenge)
raper; rapist (someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse)
shedder; spiller (an attacker who sheds or spills blood)
slasher (someone who slashes another person)
stabber (someone who stabs another person)
lapidator; stoner (an attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill))
Derivation:
assail (attack in speech or writing)
assail (launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with)
assail (attack someone physically or emotionally)
Context examples:
Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham Court Road.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
All round were high and turreted walls, with at the corner a bare square-faced keep, gaunt and windowless, rearing up from a lofty mound, which made it almost inaccessible to an assailant.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This so-called Blessington is, as I expected, well known at headquarters, and so are his assailants.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Such arrows were of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast, because their action in that torpid circulation was slow, and before its powers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His hand was on my throat and my senses were nearly gone before an unshaven French ouvrier in a blue blouse darted out from a cabaret opposite, with a cudgel in his hand, and struck my assailant a sharp crack over the forearm, which made him leave go his hold.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Right in front, the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, and just as my eyes fell upon him, beat down his guard and sent him sprawling on his back with a great slash across the face.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
As the prince spoke, amid a loud flourish of trumpets and the shouting of the Gascon party, the last of the assailants rode gallantly into the lists.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was clear, however, that Straker had defended himself vigorously against his assailants, for in his right hand he held a small knife, which was clotted with blood up to the handle, while in his left he clasped a red and black silk cravat, which was recognised by the maid as having been worn on the preceding evening by the stranger who had visited the stables.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Between these two formidable assailants the seamen were being slowly wedged more closely together, until they stood back to back under the mast with the rovers raging upon every side of them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Before going into this, I would draw your attention to the fact that, if Alec Cunningham’s narrative was correct, and if the assailant, after shooting William Kirwan, had instantly fled, then it obviously could not be he who tore the paper from the dead man’s hand.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
