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to kill suddenly or secretively, especially a politically prominent person; murder premeditatedly and treacherously.
to destroy or harm treacherously and viciously:
to assassinate a person’s character.
Contemporary Examples

Case Closed: Oswald and the assassination of JFK author Gerald Posner reports.
Teddy’s JFK Theory Gerald Posner August 25, 2009

assassination was something that occurred in other countries, other centuries.
The JFK Assassination: The Long Weekend That Never Ended Malcolm Jones October 31, 2013

There was only one book about which he never wrote back– the 1993 Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of JFK.
Ted Kennedy Was No Victim Gerald Posner August 25, 2009

Historical Examples

So many such letters accumulated that he grimly packeted them together and labeled the mass: “assassination Papers.”
The Lincoln Story Book Henry L. Williams

assassination didn’t work but combat did, and the results were the same.
The Ethical Engineer Henry Maxwell Dempsey

assassination of prominent personages would follow in due course.
A Drake by George! John Trevena

assassination, with some one else doing the work, was much the better way.
Mystery Ranch Arthur Chapman

assassination, blinding, or banishment were the price of defeat.
Venice and its Story Thomas Okey

assassination, in our modern eyes, is the last and lowest infamy of a coward.
Our Southern Highlanders Horace Kephart

assassination was now again resorted to that Napoleon might be overthrown; but every attempt, as heretofore, proved futile.
Military Career of Napoleon the Great Montgomery B. Gibbs

verb (transitive)
to murder (a person, esp a public or political figure), usually by a surprise attack
to ruin or harm (a person’s reputation, etc) by slander
n.

c.1600, noun of action from assassinate (v.).
v.

1610s, from past participle stem of Medieval Latin assassinare (see assassin). Of reputations, characters, etc., from 1620s. Related: Assassinated; assassinating.