What's the difference between assail and besiege?

Assail


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To attack with violence, or in a vehement and hostile manner; to assault; to molest; as, to assail a man with blows; to assail a city with artillery.
  • (v. t.) To encounter or meet purposely with the view of mastering, as an obstacle, difficulty, or the like.
  • (v. t.) To attack morally, or with a view to produce changes in the feelings, character, conduct, existing usages, institutions; to attack by words, hostile influence, etc.; as, to assail one with appeals, arguments, abuse, ridicule, and the like.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In confidence rape, the assailant is known to some degree, however slight, and gains control over his victim by winning her trust.
  • (2) Preliminary murder charges have been lodged against two men – both students at Islamic religious schools, who were arrested at the scene after being overpowered by bystanders – and against a third assailant who fled and has yet to be found, an officer said.
  • (3) The assailant was from another part of Afghanistan and had been working in Khost province for about a year, he said.
  • (4) "While the state security forces in some instances intervened to prevent violence and protect fleeing Muslims, more frequently they stood aside during attacks or directly supported the assailants, committing killings and other abuses," said an HRW report released on Monday.
  • (5) Supportive mothers (n = 71) believed that the child was telling the truth and that the assailant was primarily responsible.
  • (6) In the second, the two assailants pleaded guilty this week at Brighton crown court; one was given a two-year conditional discharge and another awaits sentencing.
  • (7) Didier Enrique “Electric” Ramirez was apprehended for his alleged role in the killing of Nelson García , 39, who was shot dead earlier this month by at least two assailants following a dispute with local landowners, authorities said in a statement.
  • (8) Parameters shared by two or more criminal acts allegedly committed by the same assailant were compared with the same parameters recorded from 50 or 100 other mutually independent criminal acts committed by other known assailants.
  • (9) "Just this week I'm assailed mightily for going after Islam and had been for a very long time before that."
  • (10) Up to three assailants were still inside the British Council building fighting against Afghan security forces and Nato troops, Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai said.
  • (11) Such swagger would look naïve and unreflexive now, in a country assailed by anxiety about its own impotence in the world.
  • (12) Assailants were usually adolescent and young adult men of the same race; however, 43% of children less than 5 years of age were killed by women.
  • (13) The mean age at time of assault was 21.7 years and the mean number of assailants was 2.8.
  • (14) Unknown assailants attacked Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative.
  • (15) The assailant was a women in 61 pc of cases, a man in 35 pc of cases and a child in the remainder.
  • (16) It is concluded that social heredity, heavy consumption of alcohol and emotional dependence on the male assailant are major reasons for the woman's inability to break away from a relationship characterized by repeated battering.
  • (17) The assailant later admitted the assault after being shown the video footage and was jailed for five months in February.
  • (18) The attack marks the latest flaring of political violence in the deeply polarised kingdom, where months of anti-government rallies have been marred by sporadic gun and grenade attacks by unknown assailants.
  • (19) The threat of transmission of HIV was used by the assailant in 16 cases and sexually transmitted diseases, presumed consequent upon the attack, were found in 5 (18%).
  • (20) Before the criminal law was enacted, California allowed victims to sue their virtual assailants, but that is an expensive and time-consuming option.

Besiege


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To beset or surround with armed forces, for the purpose of compelling to surrender; to lay siege to; to beleaguer; to beset.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In practice they are so elastic that they have been used to deny pasta to besieged Gazans.
  • (2) Access to besieged areas was a condition of a truce brokered earlier this year by the US and Russia , but the Syrian government has continued to ignore requests for aid deliveries, humanitarian officials say.
  • (3) Around 800,000 people died of starvation in one of the most horrific chapters of the war as the city was besieged by the Nazis for two and a half years.
  • (4) Commanders in the besieged Libyan rebel enclave of Misrata have complained that Nato has ignored requests for air support during a week of heavy attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces.
  • (5) Madaya: residents of besieged Syrian town say they are being starved to death Read more The Syrian regime and Hezbollah have put Madaya under siege for more than six months now as a response to the siege of the northern towns of Fua and Kefraya by anti-regime forces.
  • (6) At home, he’s besieged by leadership speculation of sufficient intensity to see his conservative allies resort to public verbal knife-fights.
  • (7) By creating an environment of intolerance – one could even say outright hostility – towards an already besieged community, the laws have fostered a surge of anti-gay violence across the country.
  • (8) Speaking after a day of high-level intelligence briefings with British officials in London, Abbott described the unfolding atrocity in northern Iraq as a "humanitarian catastrophe" and said Australia would provide humanitarian aid to Yazidi refugees besieged by Islamic State (Isis) forces on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.
  • (9) The UN waits too long to get access to one besieged area even though international law clearly permits it,” argues a Syrian involved in below-the-radar humanitarian work – the sort that comes, unlike government assistance, with no strings attached.
  • (10) They have kept the city open and have reopened it when it was besieged.
  • (11) The tank fired round after round, trying to help the besieged soldiers, but it didn't move forward, fearing the IEDs planted by Khalil and his men.
  • (12) Glee and American Horror Story impresario Ryan Murphy returns with this camptastic take on the slasher genre where a sorority house is besieged by a killer.
  • (13) Hefazat-e-Islam officials say they will "besiege" Dhaka next month if the government does not agree to their demands.
  • (14) When Egypt's security forces stormed the besieged al-Fath mosque in central Cairo almost two weeks ago among those arrested were four siblings with joint Irish-Egyptian nationality – three women aged 21 to 28, and their brother, 17.
  • (15) We haven’t heard the leader of the Labour party speak out enough to demand UK airdrops to besieged civilians who are dying in their thousands.” A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy has repeatedly condemned the Russian military intervention and bombing campaign in Syria and called for an independent investigation of evidence of war crimes.
  • (16) Kenneth Feinberg, the US treasury department official who is scrutinising pay packages at bailed-out banks, said that Lewis – besieged by regulatory investigations and lambasted by shareholders – should get no salary or bonus for the year.
  • (17) Matthew Pennycook is MP for Greenwich and Woolwich Louise Haigh: ‘Bringing down Corbyn would be an act of betrayal’ Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louise Haigh New Labour was a response to a Tory party in tatters, besieged by scandal, its fiscal credibility in ruins, tired and out of ideas.
  • (18) But within months, as the bodies piled up in Syria, that support would start draining away, leaving Akhras besieged by criticism and questions about the regime's judgment that he has struggled to answer.
  • (19) Are we fighting for a better understanding of what is going on in our sport or are we trying to get power?’” Saddique Shaban (@SaddiqueShaban) No let up in Kenyan athletes siege at Roadha House as besieged officials watch in awe.
  • (20) Iraq's prime minister has urged people in the besieged city of Falluja to drive out al-Qaida-linked insurgents to pre-empt a military offensive that officials said could be launched within days.