assaults

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of assault.

   Police investigated a string of armed assaults across the neighborhood.

   The troops repelled three separate assaults on the ridge before dawn.

   Note

   The plural counts separate attacks: assaults on a ridge, assaults on a reputation, a run of assaults reported to police. Because the noun also works as a mass noun, the plural appears only when attacks are counted one by one. The crime itself stays singular, as in charged with assault, never with assaults. The same spelling serves the verb's he-and-she form, and only the surrounding sentence tells them apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of assault.

   The boxer assaults his opponent with a flurry of quick jabs.

   The film assaults the senses with relentless noise and flashing color.

   Note

   Here the subject is a single third person: she assaults, the film assaults, never they assaults. The verb is always transitive, so its object follows directly: it assaults the senses. Assaults on the senses would be the noun again. Its reach is wide, since an attacker, a critic or a noise can assault, and the meaning stretches from striking to threatening or harassing.

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