attain
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈteɪn/
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: attains
form: attaining
form: attained
form: attained
Etymology: From Middle English atteynen, from Anglo-Norman ataindre, from Old French, from Latin attingō. Doublet of attainder and attinge.
Senses: examples: text: To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day.
text: Lord Ross. Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord. / Lord Willoughby. And far surmounts our labour to attain it.
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
text: […] he will stick at no falsehood, or hesitate at no crime, to attain his ends.
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 63, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 572:
text: […] that’s the highest rank a citizen can attain!
ref: 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, chapter I, in […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, Act I, page 6:
text: [S]olitude is never easy to attain in a working-class home
ref: 1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, New York: Harcourt, Brace, published 1958, Part 1, Chapter 5, p. 82:
text: But an absolutely right time arrival of all trains on the same day is never attained.
ref: 1964 July, S. W. Smart, “The Southern needs no centralised Control”, in Modern Railways, page 50:
text: Where else could I […] hope to attain such an impressive income?
ref: 2007, Mohsin Hamid, chapter 11, in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Orlando: Harcourt, page 157:
synonyms: accomplish
achieve
get
glosses: To gain (an object or desired result).
examples: text: […] my bones would rest, / That have but labour’d to attain this hour.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
text: Canaan he now attains,
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 1026:
text: It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty; but that women arrive at maturity by twenty.
ref: 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Observations on the State of Degradation to which Woman is Reduced by Various Causes”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 150:
text: the southern gales […] blow us speedily towards those shores which I so ardently desire to attain
ref: 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
glosses: To reach or come to, by progression or motion; to arrive at (a place, time, state, etc.).
examples: text: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I can not attain unto it.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalm 139:6:
text: if by any means they might attain to Phenice
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 27:12:
text: 1782, William Cowper, letter to Joseph Hill dated 11 November, 1782, in Private Correspondence of William Cowper, London: Henry Colburn, 1824, Volume 1, p. 222,
You may not, perhaps, live to see your trees attain to the dignity of timber—I, nevertheless, approve of your planting, and the disinterested spirit that prompts you to it.
text: For, scarce a spear’s length from his haunch, / Vindictive toiled the blood-hounds staunch; / Nor nearer might the dogs attain, / Nor farther might the quarry strain.
ref: 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto I. The Chase.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza VII, page 10:
text: Few boroughs had as yet attained to power such as this,
ref: 1874, John Richard Green, A Short History of the English People, London: Macmillan, Chapter 2, Section 6, p. 90:
synonyms: get
reach
glosses: To come or arrive, by motion, growth, bodily exertion, or efforts toward a place, object, state, etc.
examples: text: […] Master Camden, sometimes acknowledgeth, sometimes denieth him for an English Earle. Not that I accuse him as inconstant to himself, but suspect my self not well attaining his meaning therein.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section II”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
synonyms: ascertain
glosses: To get at the knowledge of.
examples: text: Yet notwithstanding as Those that first bring Honour into their Family, are commonly more worthy, then most that succeed: So the first President (if it be good) is seldome attained by Imitation.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Innovations”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 139:
synonyms: equal
glosses: To reach in excellence or degree.
examples: text: The Earle finding […] the enemie retired, pursued with all celeritie into Scotland; hoping to haue ouer-taken the Scottish King, and to haue giuen him Battaile; But not attaining him in time, sate downe before the Castle of Aton […] which in a small time hee tooke.
ref: 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC, page page-174:
synonyms: catch up with
overtake
glosses: To reach a person after being behind them.
Derived terms: attainability
attainable
attainer
reattain
unattaining
Related terms: attainder
attainment
attaint
attainture