Etimology
Borrowed from French attaque, derived from the verb attaquer, from Italian attaccare (“to join, attach”) (used in attaccare battaglia (“to join battle”)), from Frankish *stakka (“stick”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Old English on rǣsan (“to attack”) and onrǣs (“an attack”).
noun
attack (plural attacks)
An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy.
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.
(informal, by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.
(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.
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.
(audio) The amount of time it takes 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).
(gaming) One of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents.
Examples
From 1906 to 1960, there were forty-six recorded shark attacks, half of which were fatal.
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.
“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.
The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations.
Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.
birthday attack; denial-of-service attack
Synonyms: hit, spike
I've had an attack of the flu.
Antonyms: decay, release
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, […]
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.
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.
Related words
synonyms
See also Thesaurus:attack
hyponyms
acid attack
arson attack
birthday attack
Byzantine attack
cryptanalytic attack
cryptographic attack
cyberattack, cyber-attack
man-in-the-middle attack
pincer attack
poisoning attack
preimage attack
second-preimage attack
smudge attack
related terms
attach
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.
(transitive) To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
(transitive) To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
(transitive) To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
(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.
Examples
This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.
She published an article attacking the recent pay cuts.
In its God-like prime, The Simpsons attacked well-worn satirical fodder from unexpected angles, finding fresh laughs in the hoariest of subjects.
On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever.
Hydrofluoric acid […] attacks the glass.
We’ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework.
I attacked the meal with a hearty appetite.
He filled a basin with water, and, with an old brush and piece of sandsoap, attacked the stove.
Six successive defeats had left them rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table but, clearly under instructions to attack from the outset, Bolton started far the brighter.
Related words
synonyms
See also Thesaurus:attack
adjective
attack (not comparable)
Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.
Examples
attack dog, attack ad