assault, assaut, assaute, asaught ( gh silent)

[In Fr. a aut; 0. Fr. a ault, asalt; Prov. a alh, a aut; Sp. asalto; Port. & Ital. a alto; Low Lat, as saltus; Cla . Lat. a ultus = a leaping upon an attack; ad to, and saltus = a leaping; salio =to leap.] [ASSAIL.] A. Ordinary Language: I. Lit. A violent attack made upon any person, persons, or place, with the hands or with material weapons. [B., 1, 2, 3.] "And by a aut he wan the citee after." Chaucer: C. T. , 991 "But whanne there was maad an asaught of the hethene men." - Wycliffe : Dedis xiv. (Richardson.) "And when there was an a ault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them."- Acts xiv. 5. "They resisted his a aults desperately, and obliged him to turn the siege into a blockade."-Arnold: Hist . Rome , ch. xliv. II. Figuratively : 1. (In which the attacking force consists of a person or persons.) (a) An attack by means of a charge against one; abusive language, calumny, . "After some unhappy a aults upon the prerogative by the parliament, which produced its di olution. there followed a composure."-Clarendon. (b) An attack upon one's virtue, which may be by seduction rather than violence. (c) An attack upon a thing, as upon a religion, an opinion, . "Theories built upon narrow foundations are very hard to be supported against the a aults of opposition."-Locke. 2. (In which the attacking force is a thing.) An adverse natural force brought to bear upon a person or thing. and unshaken bears the a ault Of their most dreaded foe, the strong south-west." Words worth: Excursion, bk. v. B. Technically : 1. Mil .: A furious effort to carry a fortified post, camp, or fortre , where the a ailants do not screen themselves by any works. (James.) It is the appropriate termination of a siege which has not led to the capitulation of the garrison. "On the 8th of September (1855], after a furious bombardment of three days, the Allies a aulted the town [Sebastopol] in five places, and, though repulsed in four, the a ault of the French attack on the Malakhoff completely succeeded."-Times: Annual Sum mary (1855). To give an a ault: To attack any post. ( James .) To repulse an a ault: To cause the a ailants to retreat, to beat them back. ( Ibid .) To carry by a ault : To gain a post by storın. ( Ibid .) 2. Fencing, . A ault of Arms : An attack on each other (not in earnest) made by two fencers to exhibit or increase their skill. (Sometimes it is used in a wider sense for other military exercises.) "The 20th annual a ault of arms of the Honourable Artillery Company was held last evening. Boxing, fencing, sticks, bayonet exercise, cavalry sword exercise, ., composed the programme."- Daily Telegraph , March 29, 1877. 3. Law : A movement which virtually implies a threat to strike one, as when a person raises his hand or his cane in a menacing manner, or strikes at another but mi es him. In common law it is not needful to touch one to constitute an a ault. When a blow actually takes effect the crime is not simple a ault, but a ault and battery. If two people fight in private, they are held to have committed a aults on each other; but if they do so in public, they are chargeable with affray. [See AFFRAY.] A person a aulting another may be prosecuted by him for the civil injury, and may also be punished by the criminal law for the injury done to the public. ( Black stone: Comment., bk. iii., chap. 8; iv., chaps. 11, 15.) In Scots Law the word a ault has a somewhat more comprehensive sense than in England, the word battery not being used; but what is here called a ault and battery is in Scotland regarded simply as a more aggravated kind of a ault.