attack
Meanings
- An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
- Any of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents.
- An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
- A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
- The beginning of active operations on anything.
- An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
- Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
- Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
- The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
- The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
- An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
- The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
- To apply violent force to someone or something.
- To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
- To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
- To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
- To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
- To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
- To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
- To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
- To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders.
- (Of a chemical species) To approach a chemical species or bond in order to form a bond with it.
- Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Italian a- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des- Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- Proto-Germanic *stikaną Proto-West Germanic *stekander. Old French atachier Old French destachier Middle French destacherbor. Italian distaccare Italian staccare Italian attaccarebor. French attaquer French attaquebor. English attack Borrowed from French attaque, derived from the verb attaquer, from Italian attaccare (“to join, attach”) (used in attaccare battaglia (“to join battle”)), from Frankish *stakkijan (“to stick, stick to, attach”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Middle English onresen, from Old English onrǣsan (“to attack”); and Middle English resinge (“an assault, attack”) (compare Old English onrǣs (“an attack”)).