What's the difference between assail and vilify?

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.

Vilify


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make vile; to debase; to degrade; to disgrace.
  • (v. t.) To degrade or debase by report; to defame; to traduce; to calumniate.
  • (v. t.) To treat as vile; to despise.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Social workers are blamed and vilified, but we should be proud of what we do Read more “We have six seats for 11 people,” says Sarah Grade*, a children and families social worker based in south London.
  • (2) Social media has seized on the story, turning the Eastern Washington University’s professor of African studies into a figure vilified and mocked for cultural appropriation in the midst of fraught debates over transgender identity and police shootings of black people.
  • (3) What if the ad vilified African Americans, or Jews, or any other group for which public denigration is less permissible?
  • (4) As campaigns director for the pressure group, Oxley spent years vilifying government spending – with a special assault on development.
  • (5) Vilified, prosecuted, but – in the court of public opinion – ultimately vindicated: this is what happens to the heroes of democracy.
  • (6) David Wall: "Mark van Bommel has been wrongly vilified and miscast as a serial fouler.
  • (7) Some are starting to vilify and insult the disappeared students and demonise their parents and their demands,” said Hernández.
  • (8) Mark Field, the Conservative MP for the City of London and Westminster , said Hester had been "vilified" and warned that the intense row would put the best candidates off running the majority state-owned bank in the future.
  • (9) John Kerry , the US secretary of state, is vilified for continuing to insist that only negotiations can end the conflict – while simultaneously sidestepping the central question of Assad’s future – in line with Putin’s position.
  • (10) We are resigned to being blamed and vilified for the actions of any Muslim anywhere in the world.
  • (11) Instead, vilify and humiliate anybody who challenges – however meekly – the status quo.
  • (12) I was vilified, relentlessly, over 33 days, with over 800 hate emails ...
  • (13) His reputation was destroyed and he was vilified, he says.
  • (14) Barnaby Joyce defends halal after Coalition MPs express concern Read more “It is against the law to vilify Jews and it is not politically correct to denigrate blacks or gays.
  • (15) He remains popular despite efforts by Muslim groups to vilify him and is seen as the frontrunner in the election, though many voters are angry with him for evicting large numbers from slums to modernise Jakarta.
  • (16) Jayne Ozanne, a prominent campaigner for LGBT equality within the Anglican church, said: “Jeffrey is already a bishop in many of our eyes – he has been the ‘chief pastor’ to those of us who have felt discriminated against and vilified for the sake of our sexuality.
  • (17) Though he loves sport, he is now sworn off attending NFL matches at the MetLife stadium after attending a Jets v Titans game with his girlfriend and being “vilified from the parking lot to my seat for wearing a scarf”.
  • (18) Instead, we are vilified and made out to be money-grubbing if we complain about our working conditions.
  • (19) While ministers vilify people on benefits ( Freud sorry for comment about disabled people , 15 October), we urge everyone who thinks this is wrong to stand up for benefit justice.
  • (20) For decades they have been arbitrarily detained, denied education and livelihood, harassed, vilified in the media, and executed.