ascault, assaut

t. [O. Fr. a aulter. In Sp. asaltar, a altar, as salt ear; Ital. as salt are; Low Lat. a alto.] [ASSAULT, S.] IMG:content-0816.png:[blocks in formation] 2. To attack one in another way than by warlike weapons; to do so, for instance, by making a charge against him, calumniating him, writing against him, . "Tis a mercy I do not a ault you with a number of original sonnets and epigrams."- Pope : Letter to H. Cromwell, March 7, 1709. II. Of things: To do that which is fitted to injure (applied to things rather than persons), to threaten with injury. "Before the gates, the cries of babes new-born, Whom fate had from their tender mothers torn, A ault his ears. Dryden.