attack

noun attacks

1. An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy. From 1906 to 1960, there were forty-six recorded shark attacks, half of which were fatal.
2. Any of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents. 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.
3. An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault. “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. …”
4. A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle. The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations.
5. broadly, informal The beginning of active operations on anything. Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.
6. An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system. birthday attack; denial-of-service attack
7. Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
8. Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.

   Similar: hit, spike

9. The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
10. The sudden onset of a disease or condition. I've had an attack of the flu.
11. An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
12. The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset. 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, […]

    Opposite: decay, release

13. 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).
14. The initial sensory impact of a wine.
15. India, South, abbreviation Short for heart attack

verb attacks · attacking · attacked · attackt

1. transitive To apply violent force to someone or something. This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.

   Similar: savage

2. 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.
3. transitive To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste. On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever.
4. transitive To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon. We’ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework.
5. transitive To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
6. intransitive To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
7. intransitive To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
8. To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede. 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.
9. To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders.
10. physical (Of a chemical species) To approach a chemical species or bond in order to form a bond with it.

Similar: abuse, aggress, assail, assault, attack, beat, beleaguer, bepommel, beset, besiege, bombard, charge, come down on, dust up, fall on, fall upon, hit, impugn, invade, lay into, lay siege, let someone have it, light into, onfall, onset, overrun, pommel, pound, rush, set the dogs upon · Opposite: defend

adjective

1. not comparable Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation. attack dog, attack ad