What's the difference between assail and specify?

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.

Specify


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To mention or name, as a particular thing; to designate in words so as to distinguish from other things; as, to specify the uses of a plant; to specify articles purchased.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The present study was therefore carried out to specify further which type of adrenoceptor is involved in lithium-induced hyperglycaemia and inhibition of insulin secretion.
  • (2) The mboIIR gene specifies a protein of 416 amino acids (MW: 48,617) while the mboIIM gene codes for a putative 260-residue polypeptide (MW: 30,077).
  • (3) The specified region of the inner E2 core domain was highly homologous to the region of the E2 subunit of pyruvate dehydrogenase and alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase.
  • (4) After a review of the technical development and application of staplers from their introduction to the present day, the indications to the use of this instrument in all gastroenterological areas from the oesophagus to the rectum as well as in chest, gynaecological and urological surgery specified.
  • (5) The gacA gene specifies a trans-active 24-kDa protein.
  • (6) The flow of a specified concentration of test gas exits from the mixing board, enters a distributing tube, and is then distributed equally to 12 chamber tubes housing one mouse each.
  • (7) FBI assistant director David Bowdich said that Syed Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, were radicalized long before they went on a rampage at a community center in southern California last Wednesday, but would not specify whether he meant months or years.
  • (8) One abutment was used to evaluate each of nine oral hygiene instrumentation methods used for specified lengths of time or instrument strokes.
  • (9) The ordering may also serve as a simple format for specifying corticostriatal connections in development.
  • (10) Cessation of coital activity was associated with specified types of stress between 65 and 70 years of age in the subgroup of men who had stopped due to inability; six out of eight reported stress against five out of 20 in the C group, P less than 0.05.
  • (11) Eight bibliographic control elements are defined, and the criteria for evaluating the occurrence of these elements in sixty-four sample catalogs are specified.
  • (12) A total of 5319 cases of primary cancer in childhood were followed until patient death or the end of 1980, and the number of secondary tumors were observed, specifying on diagnosis, age, sex, and time since first tumor diagnosis.
  • (13) These design methods are suited for constructing the most efficient gradient coil that meets a specified homogeneity requirement.
  • (14) We found a 258-nucleotide 5' leader sequence containing three short open reading frames followed by a sequence specifying a protein of 437 amino acids.
  • (15) Responses in the presence of each terminal-link stimulus produced equal frequencies of food reinforcement, but in the presence of one of the stimuli, food depended upon the emission of a response rate either higher or lower than a specified value (differential reinforcement of rates).
  • (16) A formal notion of relatability is defined, specifying which physically given edges leading into discontinuities can be connected to others by interpolated edges.
  • (17) These bounds require an investigator to specify a range of possible concordances for the times to occurrences of the competing risks.
  • (18) Consistent with the convergence hypothesis, only those sites that specify amino acids in the mature lysozyme are shared uniquely with ruminant lysozyme genes.
  • (19) The level of competency in the diagnosis and treatment of common and emergency disorders needed by nonophthalmologists is assessed and then translated into explicit objectives that specify the levels of mastery to be learned.
  • (20) Specified cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of coal dust extract (mixture of solvent extractions of bituminous coal nitrosated by NaNO2) were investigated because of the association of an excess risk of gastric cancer in coal miners.