ATTACKING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Attacking

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/ətˈækɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Attack v. t. (past & past part. attacked; pres. part. attacking)

1.

To fall upon with force; to assail, as with force and arms; to assault. "Attack their lines."

2.

To assail with unfriendly speech or writing; to begin a controversy with; to attempt to overthrow or bring into disrepute, by criticism or satire; to censure; as, to attack a man, or his opinions, in a pamphlet.

3.

To set to work upon, as upon a task or problem, or some object of labor or investigation.

4.

To begin to affect; to begin to act upon, injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste. "On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever." "Hydrofluoric acid... attacks the glass."

Synonyms: To Attack, Assail, Assault, Invade. These words all denote a violent onset; attack being the generic term, and the others specific forms of attack. To attack is to commence the onset; to assail is to make a sudden and violent attack, or to make repeated attacks; to assault (literally, to leap upon) is to attack physically by a had-to-hand approach or by unlawful and insulting violence; to invade is to enter by force on what belongs to another. Thus, a person may attack by offering violence of any kind; he may assail by means of missile weapons; he may assault by direct personal violence; a king may invade by marching an army into a country. Figuratively, we may say, men attack with argument or satire; they assail with abuse or reproaches; they may be assaulted by severe temptations; the rights of the people may be invaded by the encroachments of the crown.

Attack v. i. To make an onset or attack.

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Etymology of 'Attacking'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Attacking" Quotes from Famous Books

... should hit our feet against the stones. He insisted upon our descending, and we flatly refused, saying that if any attempt was made to dislodge us we would fire. After that, as they had no real intention of attacking us in the dark, the men withdrew, but we saw from the fires which were lit around that they were keeping a strict watch ...

— Maiwa's Revenge - The War of the Little Hand • H. Rider Haggard

... remarked that the late Republican Government made a mistake in first sending an ultimatum to the English, and in attacking German South-West Africa the Union Government ...

— Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since • Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje

... arrived in 1846 and spent their first winter in untold miseries and privations, with barely sufficient food, but with enough spiritual fervor to kindle two religious services a day and three on Sunday. Attacking the vast prairies with their primitive implements, harvesting grain with the sickle and grinding it by hand when their water power gave out, sheltering themselves in tents and caves, enduring agues and fevers, hunger and cold, the majority still remained loyal to the leader whose ...

— Our Foreigners - A Chronicle of Americans in the Making • Samuel P. Orth

... rather proud that the members of a small, humble, and rather obscure, though I will say it, a beneficent society, should have felt it their duty to shut their eyes to the apparent hopelessness of attacking with their feeble means the stupendous evils they had become alive to, so that they might be able to make some small beginnings towards awakening the general public to a ...

— Hopes and Fears for Art • William Morris

... so much as glance up at his departure. She was wrangling with Nick over the best means of attacking a boiled ...

— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell

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