Past tense of assail
regular verb
The past tense of assail is assailed. The past participle is also assailed.
Forms of assail
| Base form (V1) | assail /əˈseɪl/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | assailed |
| Past participle (V3) | assailed |
| Present participle | assailing |
| Third person singular | assails |
Assailed in a sentence
- Muggers assailed them as they entered an alley.
- Our ears were assailed by her joyous efforts on her new saxophone.
- Margaret Sphery's shrill birdcalls, whistles, and hoots assailed us from a proximitous room.1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 56. From the entry proximitous
- A hawk came swooping down near tree-level to be immediately assailed by screeching pee-wits.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 107. From the entry peewit
- A prodigious quantity of insects of all sorts (but no mosquitoes) assailed us at our evening meal.1930, André Gide, “Back Again”, in Dorothy Bussy, transl., Travels in the Congo […], red seal edition, New York, N.Y.: Modern Age Books…. From the entry prodigious
Meaning of assail
- verb To attack with harsh words or violent force.
- verb To overcome or successfully argue against; defeat.
Questions about the past tense of assail
- What is the past tense of assail?
- The past tense of assail is assailed.
- What is the past participle of assail?
- The past participle of assail is assailed.
- Is assail a regular or irregular verb?
- Assail is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: assail (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of assail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/assail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.