1Make a physical attack on.

他承认犯有以武力攻击一名警官的罪行。

她年幼时受到过性侵犯。

1. 1.1 Carry out a military attack or raid on (an enemy position)
   （军队）攻击（或袭击）（敌方阵地）
   they left their strong position to assault the hill

   Example sentencesExamples

   • This enemy force aggressively assaulted the Australians using rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns.
   • Sixty enemy combatants in fortified positions assaulted the platoon.
   • Air raids began last Thursday and troops started the ground assault the following day.
   • Freedom fighters attempt to assault the city to restore the world to its natural order.
   • With only a patch of trees two hundred meters away for cover, the enemy would have a difficult time assaulting this position.
   • The safest way to assault this position was via a barely-negotiable, very steep, thorn bush-covered slope.
   • Call me old fashioned, but I still have problems with assaulting a refugee camp with bulldozers.
   • He identified the location of the enemy, and determined the precise point in which to assault the enemy.
   • It is also true that many players know better than to waste precious match time trying to assault a strong defensive position.
   • But as more and more rebel soldiers assault the extraction zone, the beleaguered marines prepare for a last stand.
   • His domain expands but never had he assaulted a village.
   • When the enemy attacked on 3 September, they assaulted his position with grenades.
   • You have to assault an enemy position but also prevent bombs from going off or files from being destroyed.
   • Subsequent reports indicated he probably died from friendly fire, although still while trying to heroically assault an enemy position.
   • I'd like to tell my teammates to hold this position while I take a few forward and assault another location, but I can't control them at all, so I move out alone.

   Synonyms

   attack, make an assault on, launch an attack on, assail, pounce on, set upon, launch oneself at, strike at, fall on, swoop on, rush, storm, besiege
2. 1.2 Attack or bombard (someone or the senses) with something undesirable or unpleasant.
   〈喻〉困扰，使难受
   her right ear was assaulted with a tide of music

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Does every sorority slasher flick have to assault our ears with the negligible talents of a really lousy frathouse party band?
   • The viewer's eyes and ears are assaulted for hours by sights and sounds of hitting, slapping, slugging, whipping, and torturing.
   • Salty air assaulted her nostrils and whipped her hair into a tangle.
   • I miss a little of their dialogue as a rowdy French accordion medley assaults my ears.
   • Again, they all seem as interested in assaulting our ears as they are with fighting evil.
   • Before I got very far, however, an unpleasant sight assaulted me.
   • A burst of noise and activity assaulted her ears as she walked in.
   • The strange thing was, audiences appeared to enjoy having their eyes and ears assaulted by what they saw, and they kept on coming back for more.
   • When we entered, our ears were assaulted by the hideous muzak dripping from the sound system.
   • Open the door and the ears are practically assaulted with bird calls.
   • The two men winced as the sound assaulted their ears.
   • Her ears were assaulted with the sounds of chattering guests and tinkling glasses, practically drowning out the background music.
   • The chorus of the surrounding forest assaulted my battered brain.
   • Walk through a shopping district or a fashionable neighbourhood in Delhi and the enervating sound of a dozen generators assaults your ears.
   • The thunder of footsteps assaulted her ears as she wrenched open the door, eyes flashing with ire.
   • A faint buzz assaulted her ears, and the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up.
   • The boy tapped his laptop in time to the discordant music assaulting his ears.
   • The wind picked up suddenly and the familiar beat of a helicopter assaulted her ears.
   • The clanging sound of metal on metal assaulted his ears.
   • I am calm, understated and quietly bemused at every swipe of toilet humour that assaults my ears.

1A physical attack.

他因攻击一电影导演而受的牢狱之苦。

性侵犯。

1. 1.1Law An act, criminal or tortious, that threatens physical harm to a person, whether or not actual harm is done.
   〔律〕人身侵犯
   he appeared in court charged with assault

   他因人身侵犯罪而被送上法庭。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The father was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but was acquitted.
   • In that case the appellant had been convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm by harassing his female victim.
   • He has previous convictions for theft, robbery and assault causing actual bodily harm.
   • The incident is being treated as an assault causing actual bodily harm.
   • He admitted a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm.
2. 1.2 A military attack or raid on an enemy position.
   （军队）攻击（或袭击）（敌方阵地）
   troops began an assault on the city

   部队开始了对这个城市的进攻。

   as modifier an assault boat

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Both Indian and Pakistan forces found that an assault on well-defended positions was extremely costly.
   • He might have escaped when the boats first started the assault on the house.
   • In response, the army launched a military assault on the facility in which the men were being held, demolishing parts of the building.
   • So can we expect an military assault version of the two-wheeled wonder?
   • As battles raged across the city centre, 15 militants mounted an assault on a police station near the airport.
   • Least of all should we cheer-lead a military assault on an already terrified, bloody and starving country.
   • The men moved off in small groups towards their assault positions.
   • There is nothing wrong with employing a brigade to conduct a raid or as the assault element of a major encroachment.
   • Troops also faked attacks before the assault to confuse enemy fighters.
   • I began to write a response - from the safety of my nice cosy flat - when the news came through that the military assault had begun.
   • The series begins with a ferocious military assault on Israel.
   • A military assault on the country cannot be ruled out - at least in the long term.
   • Owing to the fact that modem operations have an air-land character, combating enemy airborne assault and raid forces is acquiring special urgency.
   • The city fell just 21 days after the initial assaults, and military analysts describe the campaign as historic, even brilliant.
   • The player will be presented with a wide array of scenarios, from VIP rescue missions to stealth incursions to full frontal assaults against hordes of enemies.
   • Excessive speed may require that the MICLIC spend more time at the assault position rather than moving quickly forward to fire.
   • Last week hundreds of these soldiers launched an assault on their own military headquarters.
   • Frontal assaults were always attempted as a last resort, but they were costly, and their failures eroded political resolve back home.
   • On another occasion during his 11-month tour he led three assaults on an enemy position until it finally fell.
   • Rockets and automatic fire stream over your head as you try and hold off the assault on your position.

   Synonyms

   attack, strike, onslaught, offensive, storming, charge, drive, push, thrust, invasion, bombardment, sortie, sally, foray, incursion, raid, act of war, act of aggression, blitz, campaign
3. 1.3 A strong verbal attack.
   猛烈的口头攻击
   the assault on the party's tax policies

   针对该政党税收政策的抨击。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Then he thought of his own limitations and knew he was not proof against his father's verbal assaults.
   • He continued his verbal assault even as everyone tried to silence him.
   • It follows that in cyberspace the intended victim of a verbal assault is also at least less likely to become disarmed, debilitated, and silenced.
   • Chris then waited four seconds before resuming his verbal assault on Patrick's frayed nerves.
   • She broke off her verbal assault because John had started to laugh.
   • The reporter is said to have returned to the press tent, dazed by the verbal assault, and determined to seek an apology from the player's management company.
   • It is likely that we will hear more verbal assaults around both the accuracy of poverty statistics, and the legitimacy of those who produce such research.
   • You can't even imagine what such a verbal assault can do to one's psyche.
   • He said she launched a verbal assault against him after smelling alcohol on his breath when he returned from a lunch.
   • It used to protect listeners and viewers from the venomous verbal assaults of right wing commentators.
   • The constables heap a series of verbal assaults on her, with outrageous comments about her moral behaviour and attitude, for travelling alone with men in the middle of the night.
   • The woman who claims to have given ‘a little lip’ to the security officer probably launched an all-out verbal assault on the man.
   • I was barely able to keep up with the barrage of verbal assaults coming my way.
   • Instead he stood on the step on the driver's side, half in and half out, slowly unfurled his considerable frame to its full height, and began his verbal assault.
   • After an unusually ferocious verbal assault on a member of parliament, he was pronounced insane and shipped off to an asylum in Chiswick.
   • This is made evident by the fact that young Protestant girls from neighbouring schools also joined in the protest as they lanced verbal assaults at their Catholic peers.
   • All others beware: this guy's verbal assault is an earful.
   • Beginning in the fall of 2002, university administrators began a verbal assault on students and faculty supporting divestment.
   • Reid nodded before continuing his verbal assault on the clerk.
   • Anna hurried out, avoiding anymore air born objects and verbal assaults.

   Synonyms

   criticism, censure, denunciation, harangue, rant, polemic, diatribe, tirade, philippic

2A concerted attempt to do something demanding.