English Online Dictionary. What means attack? What does attack mean?
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 *stakka (“stick”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Old English on rǣsan (“to attack”) and onrǣs (“an attack”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American, General Australian) IPA(key): /əˈtæk/
- Rhymes: -æk
- Hyphenation: at‧tack
Noun
attack (plural attacks)
- An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
- (gaming) 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.
- (informal, by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.
- (computing) An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
- birthday attack; denial-of-service attack
- (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.
- Synonyms: hit, spike
- (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.
- Antonyms: decay, release
- (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.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:attack
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
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.
Conjugation
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:attack
Derived terms
Translations
Adjective
attack (not comparable)
- Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.
- attack dog, attack ad
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.
Swedish
Etymology
From French attaque.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /aˈtak/
Noun
attack c
- attack; an attempt to cause damage
- attack; offense of a battle
Declension
Synonyms
- anfall
- angrepp
Derived terms
Related terms
- attackera
Further reading
- attack in Svensk ordbok.
Anagrams
- tackat