ATTACK

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

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Etymology

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.

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).

Synonyms

• See also attack

Hyponyms

• arson attack

• birthday attack

• cryptanalytic attack

• cryptographic attack

• man-in-the-middle attack

• pincer attack

• preimage attack

• second-preimage attack

• smudge attack

Verb

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.

Synonyms

• See also attack

Source: Wiktionary

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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

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