Word.ws English Dictionary

assailing

assailing is the present participle and gerund of assail.

Meaning of assail

Verb

assail (third-person singular simple present assails, present participle assailing, simple past and past participle assailed)

  1. (figuratively, sometimes, transitive) To attack with harsh words or violent force.
    • Muggers assailed them as they entered an alley.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To overcome or successfully argue against; defeat.
    • "Yes," he said, half musing to himself, "I knew it must exist: the one explanation that accounts for everything and cannot be assailed. We have reached the bed-rock of truth at last."1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

Words formed from assailing

Questions about assailing

What is assailing the present participle and gerund of?
Assailing is the present participle and gerund of assail.

Words near assailing in the dictionary

  1. assailer
  2. assailers
  3. assailes
  4. assailest
  5. assaileth
  6. assailing
  7. assailment
  8. assailments
  9. assails
  10. assain
  11. assained

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: assailing (page history and authors); assail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “assailing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/assailing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.