Assassinate

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /əˈsasɪneɪt/

Origin

From assassin + -ate, after Middle French assassiner.

Full definition of assassinate

Verb

1. To murder someone, especially an important person, by a sudden or obscure attack, especially for ideological or political reasons. from 17th c.
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.29:The Assassines, a nation depending of PhÅ“nicia, 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 ....
2. (figuratively) To harm, ruin, or defame severely or destroy by treachery, slander, libel, or obscure attack.
• DrydenYour rhymes assassinate our fame.
• MiltonSuch usage as your honourable lords
  Afford me, assassinated and betrayed.

Related terms

• assassin
• assassination
• royal assassin

Noun

1. (obsolete) Assassination, murder.
2. (obsolete) An assassin.
• 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, vol 1., III.i.2:Yet again, many of them desperate hairbrains, rash, careless, fit to be assassinates, as being void of all fear and sorrow ....