Verb

(en verb)

To attack violently using words or force.

Muggers assailed them as they entered an alley.

For the next six months or so those children will assail her in public with demands for an improper story! (from H.H. Munro's short story, "The Storyteller").

Verb

(en verb)

(transitive)  To hurt the feelings of; to displease; to make angry; to insult.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. We nearly crowned her we were so offended . She saw us but she didn't know us, did she?’.}}

(intransitive)  To feel or become offended, take insult.

(transitive)  To physically harm, pain.

(transitive)  To annoy, cause discomfort or resent.

(intransitive)  To sin, transgress divine law or moral rules.

(transitive)  To transgress or violate a law or moral requirement.

(obsolete, transitive, archaic, biblical)  To cause to stumble; to cause to sin or to fall.

* 1896 , Adolphus Frederick Schauffler, Select Notes on the International Sunday School Lessons , W. A. Wilde company, Page 161,

"If any man offend not (stumbles not, is not tripped up) in word, the same is a perfect man."

* New Testament'', Matthew 5:29 (''Sermon on the Mount ),

"If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out."