attach
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈtæt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ætʃ
Forms: form: attaches
form: attaching
form: attached
form: attached
Etymology: From Middle English attachen, from Old French atachier, variant of estachier (“bind”), derived from estache (“stick”), from Frankish *stakkā, *stakō (“stick”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“pole, bar, stick, stake”). Doublet of attack. More at stake, stack.
Senses: examples: text: You need to attach the carabiner to your harness.
text: An officer is attached to a certain regiment, company, or ship.
text: The shoulder blade is […] attached only to the muscles.
ref: 1802, William Paley, Natural Theology:
text: A huge stone, to which the cable on the left bank was attached, was removed years later
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 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:
text: Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
ref: 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:
synonyms: word: connect
word: annex
word: affix
word: unite
word: accouple
word: affix
word: assemble
word: associate
word: attach
word: bewed
word: bind
word: clasp
word: clinch
word: combine
word: conglomerate
word: conglutinate
word: conjoin
word: connect
word: construct
word: couple
word: entwine
word: fay
word: fix
word: graft
word: hitch
word: hook
word: inosculate
word: interlink
word: join
word: joint
word: knit
word: knot
word: link
word: marry
word: piece together
word: piecen
word: pinion
word: put together
word: splice
word: unite
word: wed
word: yoke
antonyms: word: detach
word: unfasten
word: disengage
word: separate
word: adhere
word: join
glosses: To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively).
examples: text: The great interest which attaches to the mere knowledge of these facts cannot be doubted.
ref: 1838, Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy:
synonyms: word: cling
word: stick
word: adhere
word: attach
word: bond
word: cleave
word: cling
word: cohere
word: conglutinate
word: glue
word: hug
word: stick
word: stick together
word: stick with
glosses: To adhere; to be attached.
examples: text: I've attached the contract to this email.
glosses: To include an attachment with a communication (especially an email or other electronic communication).
examples: text: Dower will attach.
text: it therefore becomes important to know at what time the lien for taxes will attach.
ref: 1886, Thomas M. Cooley, A Treatise on the Law of Taxation:
glosses: To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest.
examples: text: attached to a friend; attaching others to us by wealth or flattery
text: incapable of attaching a sensible man
ref: 1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: God […] by various ties attaches man to man.
ref: 1782, William Cowper, “Charity”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To win the heart of; to connect by ties of love or self-interest; to attract; to fasten or bind by moral influence; with to.
examples: text: to attach great importance to a particular circumstance
text: To this treasure a curse is attached.
ref: 1879, Bayard Taylor, Studies in German Literature:
glosses: To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; with to.
examples: text: Then homeward every man attach the hand / Of his fair mistress.
ref: c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act 4, scene 3, lines 351–352:
glosses: To take, seize, or lay hold of.
examples: text: Eftsoones the Gard, which on his state did wait, / Attacht that faitor false, and bound him strait […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: Old lord, I cannot blame thee, / Who am myself attach'd with weariness / To th' dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treason.
ref: 1868, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Cameos from English History:
topics: law
glosses: To arrest, seize.
Derived terms: attachability
attachable
attached annulus
attacher
attachingness
attachment
deattach
disattach
get attached
no string attached
no-strings-attached
no strings attached
reattach
re-attach
semi-attached
string attached
strings attached
unattach
would lose one's head if it wasn't attached
Related terms: attachment