attack A₁T₁T₁A₁C₃K₅

Noun 4 meanings

1. An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.

2. 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. A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.

   “The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations.”

4. The beginning of active operations on anything.

   “Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.”

Verb 4 meanings

1. To apply violent force to someone or something.

   “This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.”

2. 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. To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.

4. To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.

   “We’ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework.”

Adjective 1 meaning

1. Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.

   “attack dog, attack ad”

Similar and opposite words

• BACK₁₂
• BLACK₁₃
• TRACK₁₁
• LACK₁₀
• JACK₁₇
• PACK₁₂
• CRACK₁₃
• FEEDBACK₂₀
• COMEBACK₂₀
• HACK₁₃
• STACK₁₁
• QUARTERBACK₂₈

• ATTACH₁₁
• ATTASK₁₀