besail

English

Etymology

From be- (“at, toward”) +‎ sail (“to attack, assail”), from Middle English sailen (“to attack”), short for assailen (“to assail”).

Verb

besail (third-person singular simple present besails, present participle besailing, simple past and past participle besailed)

1. (transitive, rare, archaic or poetic) To attack or assail; lunge at or toward; assault.
   • 1960, New York Folklore Quarterly, volume 16, page 100:

     The civvies and the brakesmen, with clubs they did me besail;
     They marched me right straight over to the Albany Jail […]

   • 2013, A J Dalton, Gateway of the Saviours:

     The narrow besailed giants stood with long limbs rooted deep in the surface. Every so often a leg would ponderously rise and anchor itself elsewhere, as a sifter repositioned itself with the changing wind.

   • 2014, Dr. Adrianna Scheibner, Beyond Good and Evil..... Is Paradise:

     No mater what besails us, no matter how much pain, loss or sorrow we endure, something deep within us rises to the occasion, in fusing us with Strength and Courage to get beyond what ever this world of earthly existence throws in our unknowing paths […]

   • 2015, Jennifer Armstrong, Killing Substance:

     He remembered a vision which once besailed him suddenly.