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attack
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
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”)).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American, General Australian) IPA(key): /əˈtæk/
Audio (General American): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -æk
- Hyphenation: at‧tack
Noun
attack (plural attacks)
- An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
- 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 161:
- From 1906 to 1960, there were forty-six recorded shark attacks, half of which were fatal.
- 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:
- One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools […] as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.
- (gaming) Any of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents.
- 2002 March, Aaron Butler, “Mimesis Online (PC)”, in GameSpy.com, archived from the original on 16 December 2002:
- Combat in Mimesis Online is nice and simple. You click on your target […] and then keep right-clicking your chosen attack from the drop down menu. Every time you right click on the attack, your character will swing, shoot, etc.
- 2022 January 28, Chris Tapsell, “Pokémon Legends Arceus Kleavor boss fight: How to beat Kleavor”, in Eurogamer.ner:
- Kleavor has several attacks that it's worth roughly memorising: a charge attack, where it runs at you quickly; a jump attack, that causes a pillar of rock to spike out from under the ground; and a spin attack that does damage in a circle around it.
- An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
- 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
- “I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ? Why didn’t I telephone ? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”
- They claimed the censorship of the article was an attack on free speech.
- A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
- The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations.
- (informal, by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.
- Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.
- (computing) An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
- (cricket) Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
- (volleyball) Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
- (lacrosse) The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
- (medicine) The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
- I've had an attack of the flu.
- An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
- (music) The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
- 2004, Gary Giddins, Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, page 322:
- Eric Reed was a curious choice as pianist, since his busy Petersonian attack is the antithesis of Lewis's, but he acquitted himself with panache, […]
- (audio) The amount of time taken for the volume of an audio signal to go from zero to maximum level (e.g. an audio waveform representing a snare drum hit would feature a very fast attack, whereas that of a wave washing to shore would feature a slow attack).
- (oenology) The initial sensory impact of a wine.
- (South India) Short for heart attack.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:attack
Hyponyms
- acid attack
- Adams-Stokes attack, Stokes-Adams attack
- arson attack
- asthma attack
- asthmatic attack
- billion laughs attack
- bioattack, bio-attack
- birthday attack
- Byzantine attack
- chosen-ciphertext attack
- chosen-plaintext attack
- ciphertext-only attack
- cold boot attack
- collision attack
- compound attack
- Coppersmith's attack
- copy attack
- counter-attack
- cryptanalytic attack
- cryptographic attack
- cyberattack, cyber-attack
- dictionary attack
- discovered attack
- drop attack
- ember attack
- evil maid attack
- false attack
- fraggle attack
- goal attack
- Grob's attack
- heart attack
- helitack
- known-plaintext attack
- man-in-the-middle attack
- multiattack
- panic attack
- personal attack
- pincer attack
- poisoning attack
- postattack
- preattack
- preimage attack
- real-time attack
- replay attack
- salami attack
- score attack
- second-preimage attack, second preimage attack
- sex attack
- shark attack
- shatter attack
- smudge attack
- smurf attack
- spack attack
- spaz attack
- spike attack
- subattack
- suicide attack
- supply chain attack
- Sybil attack
- time-attack, time attack
- TOAD attack
- transient ischaemic attack, transient ischemic attack
- watering hole attack
- wing attack
- X-ray attack
Derived terms
- angle of attack
- attackable
- attack ad
- attack aircraft
- attack au fer
- attack dog
- attack helicopter
- attacking midfielder
- attacking zone
- attack is the best form of defence
- attack is the best form of defense
- attacklike
- attackman
- attack page
- attack plan
- attack rate
- attack surface
- attack therapy
- attack time
- attack timing
- attack vector
- attackworthy
- complement membrane attack complex
- line of attack
- maximum attack
- membrane attack complex
- nonattack
- nonattackable
- open the attack
- passive attack
- personally attack
- plan of attack
- the best defence is attack
- unattackable
Related terms
Translations
attempt to cause damage, injury, or death
|
attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing
offense of a battle
|
cricket: bowlers of a cricket side
|
volleyball: hit other than serve or block that sends the ball over the net
lacrosse: the attackmen of a team
|
medicine: sudden onset of a disease
|
active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease
Verb
attack (third-person singular simple present attacks, present participle attacking, simple past and past participle attacked or (obsolete) attackt or (obsolete, dialectal) attackted)
- (transitive) To apply violent force to someone or something.
- Synonym: savage
- This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.
- 1941 December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 0:00 from the start, in Day of Infamy Speech, Washington, D.C., page 1:
- Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
- (transitive) To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
- She published an article attacking the recent pay cuts.
- 1988 December 11, John D'Emilio, “Enemies, Anger, and Militance”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 22, page 5:
- It was puzzling to read a column that claimed to be attacking me, yet espoused the main ideas in my article.
- 2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in The A.V. Club, Fusion Media Group:
- In its God-like prime, The Simpsons attacked well-worn satirical fodder from unexpected angles, finding fresh laughs in the hoariest of subjects.
- (transitive) To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever.
- 1866, Balfour Stewart, An Elementary Treatise on Heat:
- Hydrofluoric acid […] attacks the glass.
- (transitive) To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
- We’ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework.
- I attacked the meal with a hearty appetite.
- (transitive, cricket) To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
- (intransitive, cricket) To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
- (intransitive, cricket) To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
- (soccer) To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
- (cycling) To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders.
- (physical chemistry) (Of a chemical species) To approach a chemical species or bond in order to form a bond with it.
Conjugation
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:attack
Derived terms
Translations
to apply violent force
|
to aggressively challenge with words
|
to deal with something undesirable in a direct way
|
cricket: to aim balls at the batsman’s wicket
|
cricket: to set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets
|
soccer: to move forward in an attempt to score point
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective
attack (not comparable)
- Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.
Further reading
- “attack”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “attack”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “attack”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
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Swedish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
attack c
Declension
Synonyms
Derived terms
- astmaattack
- attackdykare
- attackflyg
- attackflygplan
- attackhelikopter
- attackplan
- attackrobot
- attackstyrka
- attackubåt
- bombattack
- cyberattack
- drönarattack
- flygattack
- frontalattack
- gasattack
- granatattack
- gråtattack
- hackarattack
- hajattack
- hjärtattack
- hostattack
- hämndattack
- kavalleriattack
- luftattack
- migränattack
- missilattack
- motattack
- nysattack
- nätattack
- panikattack
- piratattack
- raketattack
- robotattack
- självmordsattack
- skrattattack
- syraattack
- terrorattack
- terroristattack
- vedergällningsattack
- virusattack
- ångestattack
- överbelastningsattack
Related terms
Further reading
- attack in Svensk ordbok.
Anagrams
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