attack | |
1. n. An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy. | |
2. n. An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault. | |
They claimed the censorship of the article was an attack on free speech. | |
3. n. A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle. | |
The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations. | |
4. n. (informal, by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything. | |
Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry. | |
5. n. (cricket) Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side. | |
6. n. (volleyball) Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net. | |
7. n. (lacrosse) The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team. | |
8. n. (medicine) The sudden onset of a disease or condition. | |
I've had an attack of the flu. | |
9. n. An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease. | |
10. n. (music) The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset. | |
11. n. (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 t | |
12. v. To apply violent force to someone or something. | |
This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened. | |
13. v. 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. | |
14. v. To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste. | |
15. v. 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. | |
16. v. (transitive, cricket) To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket. | |
17. v. (intransitive, cricket) To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets. | |
18. v. (intransitive, cricket) To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly. | |
19. v. (soccer) To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede. | |
20. v. (cycling) To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders. | |