Definition of "assassinate"

assassinate

/əˈsæsɪneɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present assassinates, present participle assassinating, simple past and past participle assassinated
1. To murder someone, especially an important person, by a sudden or obscure attack, especially for ideological or political reasons.
  Quotations
  The Assassines, a nation depending of Phœnicia, are esteemed among the Mahometists […]. And thus was our Earle Raymond of Tripoli murthered or assassinated (this word is borrowed from their name) in the middest of his Citie, during the time of our warres in the holy land […].
  1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Vertue”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 408
2. (figuratively) To harm, ruin, or defame severely or destroy by treachery, slander, libel, or obscure attack.
  Quotations
  Such uſage as your honourable Lords / Afford me aſſaſſinated and betray'd, […]
  1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 67
  But vvhen your Rhimes aſſaſſinate our Fame, / You hug your nauſeous, blund'ring Ballad-vvits, / And pay 'em as if Nonſence vvere a merit, / If it can mean but Treaſon.
  1682 December 15 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John] Dryden, [Nathaniel] Lee, The Duke of Guise. A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for R[ichard] Bentley […], and J[acob] Tonson […], published 1683, Act V, scene i, page 62
noun
plural assassinates
1. (obsolete) Assassination, murder.
  Quotations
  Mor. Why? if I had made an assassinate upon your Father; vitiated your Mother: ravished your Sisters―Tru. I would kill you, Sir, I would kill you, if you had. Mor. Why? you do more in this, Sir: it were a vengeance centuple, for all facinorous Acts, that could be nam'd, to do that you do.
  1609 December (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
2. (obsolete) An assassin.
  Quotations
  Yet again, many of them deſperat hairebraines, raſh, careleſſe, fit to be Aſſaſinates, as being voide of all Feare and Sorrow […]
  1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of the minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, partition 1, section 3, member 1, subsection 2, page 164

Definition of "assassinate"

assassinate

verb

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

Quotations