What's the difference between assault and threaten?

Assault


Definition:

  • (n.) A violent onset or attack with physical means, as blows, weapons, etc.; an onslaught; the rush or charge of an attacking force; onset; as, to make assault upon a man, a house, or a town.
  • (n.) A violent onset or attack with moral weapons, as words, arguments, appeals, and the like; as, to make an assault on the prerogatives of a prince, or on the constitution of a government.
  • (n.) An apparently violent attempt, or willful offer with force or violence, to do hurt to another; an attempt or offer to beat another, accompanied by a degree of violence, but without touching his person, as by lifting the fist, or a cane, in a threatening manner, or by striking at him, and missing him. If the blow aimed takes effect, it is a battery.
  • (n.) To make an assault upon, as by a sudden rush of armed men; to attack with unlawful or insulting physical violence or menaces.
  • (n.) To attack with moral means, or with a view of producing moral effects; to attack by words, arguments, or unfriendly measures; to assail; as, to assault a reputation or an administration.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) DI James Faulkner of Great Manchester police said: “The men and women working in the factory have told us that they were subjected to physical and verbal assaults at the hands of their employers and forced to work more than 80-hours before ending up with around £25 for their week’s work.
  • (2) The author's experience in private psychoanalytic practice and in Philadelphia's rape victim clinics indicates that these assaults occur frequently.
  • (3) Although the group is constantly the target of an all-out political assault, it has a robust national fundraising operation that allows it to subsidize abortions for poor women and expand to new locations.
  • (4) The attitudes and practices of 96 doctors toward spousal assault victims in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, were investigated by questionnaire surveys distributed to general practitioners.
  • (5) Some have been threatened and assaulted, while others’ homes have been ransacked, their families living in constant fear.
  • (6) I was amazed by the sheer scale of the operation, easily mistaken for a full military assault on a kraken.
  • (7) After Mousa's death, the surviving detainees were subjected to further assaults.
  • (8) Some 300 million women and girls are forced to defecate outside, exposed not only to the risks of disease and bacterial infection, but also harassment and assault by men.
  • (9) Alcohol use appeared to be a significant ingredient in the production of the assaultive behavior in the majority of the cases.
  • (10) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump ‘sways malevolently’ behind Hillary Clinton Instead, he began the night by assembling a group of women in a press conference to revisit alleged sexual assaults by Bill Clinton, before confronting his opponent hardest on her private email server.
  • (11) It is Vine who initiated this latest assault on Ed’s character.
  • (12) Sexual assault of women in the United States may have a prevalence rate of 25% or more.
  • (13) Inevitably, and necessarily, Labour has appeared split as the coalition has captured broad public support for its assault on the deficit.
  • (14) Reports of violence associated with delusional misidentification are reviewed and four patients described who were either perpetrators or victims of assaults as a consequence of the syndromes of Frégoli, Intermetamorphosis, Subjective Doubles and Capgras.
  • (15) It is believed that many women have yet to report assaults, and police appealed for people who had not already done so to come forward.
  • (16) Beatings with metal bars and cables were followed by so-called “security checks”, during which women in particular were subjected to rape and sexual assault by male guards.
  • (17) The retired judge’s report outlines multiple rapes and indecent assaults on children by Savile, which she claims were all “in some way associated with the BBC”.
  • (18) Sexual assault victims (1,059) under the age of 17 were evaluated over a period of 44 months in a teaching, metropolitan county emergency room.
  • (19) As Bradford University professor Paul Rogers told Jones, the bombing of Mali "will be portrayed as 'one more example of an assault on Islam'".
  • (20) It doesn't surprise me that a man whose hit song sounded like an assault anthem and featured a video full of naked models would attempt to get back his wife via public pressure and a threatening music video.

Threaten


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn.
  • (v. t.) To exhibit the appearance of (something evil or unpleasant) as approaching; to indicate as impending; to announce the conditional infliction of; as, to threaten war; to threaten death.
  • (v. i.) To use threats, or menaces; also, to have a threatening appearance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One hundred and twenty-seven states have said with common voice that their security is directly threatened by the 15,000 nuclear weapons that exist in the arsenals of nine countries, and they are demanding that these weapons be prohibited and abolished.
  • (2) The significance of minor increases in the serum creatinine level must be recognized, so that modifications of drug therapy can be made and correction of possibly life-threatening electrolyte imbalances can be undertaken.
  • (3) The hospital whose A&E unit has been threatened with closure on safety grounds has admitted that four patients died after errors by staff in the emergency department and other areas.
  • (4) Certainly, Saunders did not land a single blow that threatened to stop his opponent, although he took quite a few himself that threatened his titles in the final few rounds.
  • (5) Shelter’s analysis of MoJ figures highlights high-risk hotspots across the country where families are particularly at risk of losing their homes, with households in Newham, east London, most exposed to the possibility of eviction or repossession, with one in every 36 homes threatened.
  • (6) Active cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with immunosuppression and predisposes to the development of life-threatening superinfections in immunocompromised patients.
  • (7) A paraesophageal hernia may be life-threatening and requires surgical correction when diagnosed.
  • (8) It is concluded that based on readily available clinical criteria at the time of admission, a subgroup of patients at low risk for developing life-threatening complications requiring coronary care unit interventions can be identified and admitted directly to an intermediate-care unit.
  • (9) Aspergillomas generally arise from saprophytic colonization of a pre-existing pulmonary cavity with Aspergillus, and may be complicated by life-threatening hemoptosis.
  • (10) 1) The incidence of premature rupture of the membranes (PROM), threatened premature delivery, toxemia and abruption placentae were 40.6, 36.4, 7.8 and 3.0%, respectively.
  • (11) I haven't had to face anyone like the man who threatened to call the police when he decided his card had been cloned after sharing three bottles of wine with his wife, or the drunk woman who became violent and announced that she was a solicitor who was going to get this fucking place shut down – two customers Andrew had to deal with on the same night.
  • (12) Martin O’Neill spoke of his satisfaction at the Republic of Ireland’s score draw in the first leg of their Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina – and of his relief that the match was not abandoned despite the dense fog that descended in the second half and threatened to turn the game into a farce.
  • (13) VAT increases don't just hit the poor more than the rich, they also hit small firms, threaten retail jobs and, by boosting inflation, could also lead to higher interest rates."
  • (14) Interferon alfa-2a appears to induce the early regression of life-threatening corticosteroid-resistant hemangiomas of infancy.
  • (15) The notion of life-threatening dermatoses may seem to be a contradiction in terms, but in fact there are a number of serious dermatologic conditions that require prompt attention to prevent fatal consequences.
  • (16) Ninety women with a positive pregnancy test and signs and symptoms of threatened abortion or ectopic pregnancy had endovaginal and abdominal sonography in order to compare the value of the two techniques for the detection of gestational abnormalities.
  • (17) However in a repeat of the current standoff over the federal budget, the conservative wing of the Republican party is threatening to exploit its leverage over raising the debt ceiling to unpick Obama's healthcare reforms.
  • (18) BAE is likely to have made provision for much heavier penalties and its financial stability will not be threatened.
  • (19) Obstetrician-gynecologists must place lymphocytic adenohypophysitis in the differential diagnosis of pituitary enlargement associated with pregnancy, since treatment is available and the sequelae may be life-threatening.
  • (20) They have repeatedly threatened to derail the country's progress," Kassem added.