attack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈtæk/
rhymes: -æk
Forms: form: attacks
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 *stakkijan (“to stick, stick to, attach”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Middle English onresen, from Old English onrǣsan (“to attack”); and Middle English resinge (“an assault, attack”) (compare Old English onrǣs (“an attack”)).
Senses: examples: text: From 1906 to 1960, there were forty-six recorded shark attacks, half of which were fatal.
ref: 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 161:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:
glosses: An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2002 March, Aaron Butler, “Mimesis Online (PC)”, in GameSpy.com, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2002:
text: 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.
ref: 2022 January 28, Chris Tapsell, “Pokémon Legends Arceus Kleavor boss fight: How to beat Kleavor”, in Eurogamer.ner:
topics: games
gaming
glosses: An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
Any of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents.
examples: text: “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. …”
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
text: They claimed the censorship of the article was an attack on free speech.
glosses: An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
examples: text: The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations.
glosses: A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
examples: text: Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.
glosses: The beginning of active operations on anything.
examples: birthday attack; denial-of-service attack
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
volleyball
synonyms: hit
spike
glosses: Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
examples: text: I've had an attack of the flu.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
glosses: An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
examples: text: 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, […]
ref: 2004, Gary Giddins, Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, page 322:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
antonyms: decay
release
glosses: The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
topics: audio
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: 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).
topics: beverages
food
lifestyle
oenology
glosses: The initial sensory impact of a wine.
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
TOAD 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
maximum attack
membrane attack complex
nonattack
nonattackable
open the attack
personally attack
plan of attack
the best defence is attack
unattackable
Related terms: attach