attack

Meaning

Noun

1. An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
2. An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
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.
4. A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
5. (broadly, informal) The beginning of active operations on anything.
6. An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
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.
9. The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
10. The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
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.
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.

Verb

1. (transitive) To apply violent force to someone or something.
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).
3. (transitive) To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
4. (transitive) To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
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.
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.

Adj

Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.

Opposite of

decay, release

Synonyms

assault

assail

aggression

strike

charge

raid

invade

beat

offensive

fight

onslaught

access

hit

fit

fall upon

invasion

storm

aggress

onset

offence

seizure

offense

criticism

outrage

attempt

advance

encounter

onrush

stroke

injure

criticize

fire

🔥

oppose

ambush

blast

blame

insult

besiege

hurt

rush upon

abuse

approach

strafe

set on

tackle

bash

fall

affect

eat away

descend

Translations

attaque

👊

attaquer

👊

attacco

👊

atacar

👊

angreifen

👊

ataque

👊

Angriff

👊

aanvallen

👊

attaccare

aanval

ataque

👊

atac

👊

atacar

👊

assalto

atacar

👊

Pronounced as (IPA)

/əˈtæk/

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”)).

Sentences

The Internet of uncontrolled things brought us a distributed denial of service attack once again .

It was shredded , like lace after an attack from hyperactive kittens .