attack, tone-beginning
(noun) a decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase
attack
(noun) an offensive move in a sport or game; “they won the game with a 10-hit attack in the 9th inning”
attack, attempt
(noun) the act of attacking; “attacks on women increased last year”; “they made an attempt on his life”
approach, attack, plan of attack
(noun) ideas or actions intended to deal with a problem or situation; “his approach to every problem is to draw up a list of pros and cons”; “an attack on inflation”; “his plan of attack was misguided”
attack, onslaught, onset, onrush
(noun) (military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons); “the attack began at dawn”
attack
(noun) strong criticism; “he published an unexpected attack on my work”
fire, attack, flak, flack, blast
(noun) intense adverse criticism; “Clinton directed his fire at the Republican Party”; “the government has come under attack”; “don’t give me any flak”
attack
(noun) the onset of a corrosive or destructive process (as by a chemical agent); “the film was sensitive to attack by acids”; “open to attack by the elements”
attack
(noun) a sudden occurrence of an uncontrollable condition; “an attack of diarrhea”
attack
(verb) begin to injure; “The cancer cells are attacking his liver”; “Rust is attacking the metal”
attack
(verb) set to work upon; turn one’s energies vigorously to a task; “I attacked the problem as soon as I got out of bed”
attack, round, assail, lash out, snipe, assault
(verb) attack in speech or writing; “The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker”
attack, aggress
(verb) take the initiative and go on the offensive; “The Serbs attacked the village at night”; “The visiting team started to attack”
attack, assail
(verb) launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with; “Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II”; “Serbian forces assailed Bosnian towns all week”
assail, assault, set on, attack
(verb) attack someone physically or emotionally; “The mugger assaulted the woman”; “Nightmares assailed him regularly”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
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.
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 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).
• See also attack
• arson attack
• birthday attack
• cryptanalytic attack
• cryptographic attack
• man-in-the-middle attack
• pincer attack
• preimage attack
• second-preimage attack
• smudge attack
attack (third-person singular simple present attacks, present participle attacking, simple past and past participle attacked)
(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.
• See also attack
Source: Wiktionary
At*tack", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Attacked; p. pr. & vb. n. Attacking.] Etym: [F. attaquer, orig. another form of attacher to attack: cf. It. attacare to fasten, attack. See Attach, Tack a small nail.]
1. To fall upon with force; to assail, as with force and arms; to assault. "Attack their lines." Dryden.
2. To assail with unfriendly speech or writing; to begin a controversy with; to attempt to overthrow or bring into disrepute, by criticism or satire; to censure; as, to attack a man, or his opinions, in a pamphlet.
3. To set to work upon, as upon a task or problem, or some object of labor or investigation.
4. To begin to affect; to begin to act upon, injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste. On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever. Macaulay. Hydrofluoric acid . . . attacks the glass. B. Stewart.
Syn.
– To Attack, Assail, Assault, Invade. These words all denote a violent onset; attack being the generic term, and the others specific forms of attack. To attack is to commence the onset; to assail is to make a sudden and violent attack, or to make repeated attacks; to assault (literally, to leap upon) is to attack physically by a had- to-hand approach or by unlawful and insulting violence; to invade is to enter by force on what belongs to another. Thus, a person may attack by offering violence of any kind; he may assail by means of missile weapons; he may assault by direct personal violence; a king may invade by marching an army into a country. Figuratively, we may say, men attack with argument or satire; they assail with abuse or reproaches; they may be assaulted by severe temptations; the rights of the people may be invaded by the encroachments of the crown.
At*tack", v. i.
Definition: To make an onset or attack.
At*tack", n. Etym: [Cf. F. attaque.]
1. The act of attacking, or falling on with force or violence; an onset; an assault; -- opposed to defense.
2. An assault upon one's feelings or reputation with unfriendly or bitter words.
3. A setting to work upon some task, etc.
4. An access of disease; a fit of sickness.
5. The beginning of corrosive, decomposing, or destructive action, by a chemical agent.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
23 January 2025
(adjective) being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north; “my left hand”; “left center field”; “the left bank of a river is bank on your left side when you are facing downstream”
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
