# attack
## 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: /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 2002-12-16: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.
    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.
    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.
    Antonyms: decay, release
** 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.

#### 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
* transient ischaemic attack, transient ischemic attack
* watering hole attack
* wing 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
* membrane attack complex
* nonattack
* nonattackable
* open the attack
* passive attack
* personally attack
* plan of attack
* the best defence is attack
* unattackable

#### Related terms

* attach

#### 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.
    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.
** 1922, Joseph Hergesheimer, Mountain Blood‎:He filled a basin with water, and, with an old brush and piece of sandsoap, attacked the stove.
* (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.
** 2011 October 15, Michael Da Silva, “Wigan 1 - 3 Bolton”, in BBC Sport‎: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.
* (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

$^†$ Archaic or obsolete.

#### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:attack

#### Derived terms

* attackable
* attackee
* reattack
* unattackable
* unattacked

#### Translations

    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.
    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: /aˈtak/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

attack c
* attack; an attempt to cause damage
* attack; offense of a battle

#### Synonyms

* anfall
* angrepp

#### 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

* attackera

### Further reading

* attack in Svensk ordbok.

### Anagrams

* tackat