Meaning of attack in English

attack

verb

/əˈtæk/ us

/əˈtæk/

attack verb (HURT)

B1 [ I or T ]

to try to hurt or defeat using violence:

He was attacked and seriously injured by a gang of youths.

Army forces have been attacking the town since dawn.

Most wild animals won't attack unless they are provoked.

Compare

defend (PROTECT)

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to try to hurt someone using violence

attackHe was attacked in the car park.
assaultThe intruder assaulted him in his home.
go forUK She suddenly lost her temper and went for me.
come atHe came at me with a baseball bat.
mugYes, that is the man who mugged me.
ambushThey ambushed him and left him for dead.

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More examples

Her voice shook as she spoke about the person who attacked her.
He attacked the man with a broken bottle.
She used to love cats but one attacked her and she doesn't like them anymore.
The army has been criticized for attacking the unarmed civilian population.
Earlier today a man was arrested for attacking a motorist in a road rage incident.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Attacking & invading

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attack verb (CRITICIZE)

C1 [ T ]

to criticize someone strongly:

She wrote an article attacking the judges and their conduct of the trial.

The report attacks the idea of exams for seven and eight-year-olds.

Synonyms

castigate formal
censure  formal
chastise (CRITICIZE) formal
condemn
criticize
damn  (BLAME)
decry formal
denounce (CRITICIZE)
excoriate formal
rail  formal
revile formal
slam  informal

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to show disapproval of someone or something

criticizeHe criticized the government's handling of the crisis.
attackShe wrote an article attacking the judge and the way the trial had been conducted.
condemnShe was condemned for her comments about the candidate.
denounceThe government's economic policy has been denounced on all sides.
come under fireThe government programme has come under fire for mismanaging funds.

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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Disapproving & criticizing

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attack verb (DAMAGE)

C2 [ T ]

If something, such as a disease or a chemical, attacks something, it damages it:

AIDS attacks the body's immune system.

My rose bushes are being attacked by aphids.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Damaging and spoiling

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attack verb (SPORT)

[ I or T ]

If players in a team attack, they move forward to try to score points, goals, etc.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

General terms used in ball sports

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attack verb (DEAL WITH)

[ T ]

to deal with something quickly and in an effective way:

We have to attack these problems now and find some solutions.

The children rushed in and eagerly attacked the food (= quickly started to eat it).

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Dealing with things or people

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attack

noun

/əˈtæk/ us

/əˈtæk/

attack noun (VIOLENT ACT)

B1 [ C or U ]

a violent act intended to hurt or damage someone or something:

a racist attack

Enemy forces have made an attack on the city.

These bomb blasts suggest that the terrorists are (going) on the attack (= trying to defeat or hurt other people) again.

The town was once again under attack (= being attacked).

More examples

The terrorist attack on the UN building has shocked the civilized world.
The submarine dived just in time to avoid the enemy attack.
The police have to arm themselves against attack.
An 80-year-old woman was badly hurt in what the police describe as an apparently motiveless attack .
The rebel headquarters took a direct hit from a bomb during the attack.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Attacking & invading

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attack noun (CRITICISM)

C2 [ C or U ]

a strong criticism of someone or something:

a scathing attack on the president

The government has come under attack from all sides for cutting education spending.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Disapproving & criticizing

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attack noun (ILLNESS)

[ C ]

a sudden and short period of illness:

an attack of asthma/flu/malaria

figurative an attack of the giggles

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Disease & illness - general words

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attack noun (SPORT)

B1 [ C or U ]

the part of a team in some sports that tries to score points:

The team has a strong attack, but its defence is weak.

The team is strong inattack but useless in defence.

[ U ]

determination in the way you play a sport, trying hard to score points:

The team needs to put some more attack into its game.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Competitors & participants in sports & games

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Competing in sport

(Definition of attack from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

attack | American Dictionary

attack

verb

/əˈtæk/

attack verb (HURT)

[ I/T ]

to try to hurt or defeat someone or something using violence:

[ T ] Two campers were attacked by a bear last night.

[ I ] Most wild animals won't attack unless they are provoked.

[ I/T ]

If a disease or a chemical attacks something, it damages it:

[ T ] The stress hormone cortisol attacks the immune system.

attack verb (CRITICIZE)

[ T ]

to criticize someone or something strongly:

Critics have attacked her ideas as antidemocratic.

In TV ads, he attacked his opponent’s record.

attacker

noun [ C ] us

/əˈtæk·ər/

attack

noun [ C/U ]

/əˈtæk/

attack noun [C/U] (HURT)

An attack is also a sudden, short period of illness, or a sudden feeling that you cannot control:

[ C ] an asthma attack

[ C ] How do you let your kids go without having anxiety attacks?

attack noun [C/U] (CRITICISM)

An attack is also strong criticism of someone or something:

[ U ] The more he speaks out, the more he comes under attack.

Idiom

on the attack

(Definition of attack from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of attack

attack

A multinational attacked the nation's dignity by colonising a national image for its global enterprise.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We only have inadequate knowledge of the planned attacks, but we are sure of the detainee's involvement and of the attack's seriousness and imminence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He could still change his mind about the attacks (or he could be run over by a bus).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Lizards attacked far fewer sawfly larvae than pierid caterpillars.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We also hear of demonstrations in which pilgrims were booed or attacked by anticlerical crowds.#!

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The predators deterred/household cattle cross effects variable suggests that households with larger cattle herds are willing to pay more to deter predators from attacking.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Over the next 14 months, the child remained cyanosed, becoming increasingly so with time, but with no history of overt hypercyanotic attacks.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They were taught how to ward off and resist unexpected attacks and disable their attacker.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Last year pro had two heart attacks within two to three months.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Secondly, he was a fellow bishop and these attacks besmirched the honour of the office which he shared with other prelates.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Night terrors (different from nightmares) and somnambulism attacks also occur during slow wave sleep, all these data showing non-visual mental activity during sleep.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

How does one go from neurons firing to the dream experience of being attacked, and what are the mechanisms to achieve this transformation?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Attacks resulting in death and consumption of the prey were deemed successful attacks.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Unfortunately, this situation becomes even more complicated when a given problem is attacked by perturbation methods.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The objective is to clearly identify the potential role and also the limits of agricultural technology in attacking poverty.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of attack

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with attack

attack

These are words often used in combination with attack.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

acute attack

Treatment of tension headache involves reassurance, simple analgesia as abortive treatment for the acute attack and treatment of any psychopathology that may be present.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

aggressive attack

When landowners are faced with such an aggressive attack, naturally, they respond by being aggressive in their own right.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

air attack

Such air attack is said to be pressed home at levels determined by military considerations only.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with attack