attack

  • (noun): An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy.
  • (noun): An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
  • (noun): A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
  • (noun): (by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.
  • (noun): An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
  • (noun): Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
  • (noun): Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
  • (noun): The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
  • (noun): The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
  • (noun): An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
  • (noun): The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
  • (noun): (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 that of a wave washing to shore would feature a slow attack).
  • (verb): To apply violent force to someone or something.
  • (verb): To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
  • (verb): To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
  • (verb): To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
  • (verb): To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
  • (verb): To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
  • (verb): To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
  • (verb): To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
  • (verb): To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders.
  • They claimed the censorship of the article was an attack on free speech.
  • The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations.
  • Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.
  • I've had an attack of the flu.
  • This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.