attack

IPA: ʌtˈæk

An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy.
An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
(informal, by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.
(computing) An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
(cricket) Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
(volleyball) Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
(lacrosse) The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
(medicine) The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
(music) The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
(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).
(gaming) One of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents.

(transitive) To apply violent force to someone or something.
(transitive) To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
(transitive) To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
(transitive) To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
(transitive, cricket) To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
(intransitive, cricket) To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
(intransitive, cricket) To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
(soccer) To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
(cycling) To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders.
(chemistry) (Of a chemical species) To approach a chemical species or bond in order to form a bond with it.

Examples of "attack" in Sentences

But the attack is a campaign tactic that has been used many times.
But to cover a real attack on an angle, cavalry sometimes makes a _false attack_ on the front of a square.
This attack is all the more insidious because "Catholics" are at the forefront of using their positions of power to try to destroy the Church.
So the attack is then set up thus: pick an upper class trait for maximum rhetorical effect and then describe those who would look down on you thusly.
The Portuguese driver will have a very busy March, with about 10 days of testing for the season, getting ready for the title attack on the European Formula Renault 2.0, title which belongs to his team Motopark Academy.
This attack is the latest in a series of systematic attacks against Nigerians of the Niger Delta which has been on going for the past 20 years from Babaginda, Abacha, Obasanjo and now this pathetic individual who calls himself President when in fact he was never even elected - unless you call rigging an election a legal process.
What's striking is that while everybody recognizes that Estrich's hysterical in both meanings of the term attack on Michael Kinsley was pure menopausal hot flash, the Axiom of Equality -- the assumption that any inequality disfavoring non-white males is the product of discrimination and must be alleviated -- is so engrained in public discourse that you just know Estrich is going to win in the end.