assails

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