Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Assassinate

As-säs’sin-āte, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. ASSASSINATED; p. pr. & vb. n. ASSASSINATING.] [L. Lat. assassinare, It. assassinare, Fr. assassiner.] 1. To kill, or attempt to kill, by surprise or secret assault; to murder by sudden violence, or to attack with murderous intent. I am ravished, and like to be assassinated. Dryden. 2. To waylay, or take by treachery. [Rare.] Such usage as your honorable lords Afford me, assassinated and betrayed. Milton. Syn.—To kill; murder. See KILL.

As-säs'sin-ate, n.

noun

n. [Fr. assassinat.]

  1. An assassination, murder, or murderous assault. [Obs.] “If I had made an assassinate upon your father.” B. Jonson. “Assassinates and popular insurrections.” Pope.
  2. An assassin; a murderer. [Obs.]

What was the number of the assassinates? Dryden.