| 释义 |
▪ I. attack, v.|əˈtæk|
Also 7 attaque, attacque.
[a. F. attaque-r, 16th c. ad. It. attaccare: see attach. Not in Shakes., nor in Cotgr. under F. attaquer.]
trans. in all senses.
1. a. To fasten or fall upon with force or arms; to join battle with, assail, assault. (The ordinary word to describe offensive military operations.)
1600Holland Livy i. 3 Being attackt with war from the Sabines. 1660Blount Boscobel i. (1680) 15 Lambert with a far greater number of Rebels attaqu'd him. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. v. 117, 2000 Janisaries..were sent out to Attacque a small Castle. 1776–88Gibbon Decl. & F. xliii. (1813) VII. 359 The strong towns he successively attacked. 1876Green Short Hist. i. §5 (1882) 43 The Danes were the same people in blood and speech with the people they attacked.
b. absol.
a1755Cane Campaigns (J.) Those that attack generally get the victory, though with disadvantage of ground.
2. To set upon with hostile action or words, so as to overthrow, injure, or bring into disrepute.
1643Milton Soveraigne Salve 32 Under colour of a pretended partie..the Parliament is attaqued. 1656Cowley Misc. (1669) 30 Some care bestow On us..Attacqu'ed by Envy, and by Ignorance. 1678Owen Mind of God i. 10 Religion was attacqued or disturbed withal. 1771Junius Lett. lix. 309 Who attacks the liberty of the press? 1798Ferriar Illustr. Sterne ii. 25 Rabelais attacked boldly the scholastic mode of education. 1858De Quincey Whiggism Wks. VI. 173 He attacked the Archbishop of Dublin..in a rancorous tone.
3. To assail with temptations.
1673Lady's Call. i. i. §20 Finding it their interest to corrupt him with money, they were yet so possest with the reverence of his vertues, that none durst undertake to attaque him. Ibid. i. v. §23 There are few more frequently attaqued then women of quality.
4. To enter upon a work of difficulty, with the intention of conquering or completing it.
1812Shelley Let. 17 Dec. (1964) I. 216 Mrs. Shelley is attacking Latin with considerable resolution. 1871Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Engin. I. 201 Finding the ore, making all roads, shafts, drifts, etc., which will enable the miner to attack it. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xxi. 296 They will have to attack some hard work. 1875Times 20 Apr. 5/6 We have never been able to attack those parts of the sun's surroundings.
5. Of disease: To seize upon, begin to affect.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 318 Diseases, Disorders, Weaknesses, Sicknesses, Harbingers and Forerunners of Death attaquing his Bodily Constitution. 1863Kemble Resid. Georgia 40 Rheumatism..attacks indiscriminately the young and old.
6. Of physical agents: To begin to act upon destructively, to begin to destroy, devour, waste, decompose, or dissolve.
1842Penny Cycl. XXIV. 232/2 White ants..often attacking the wood-work of houses. 1871B. Stewart Heat i. i. §20 Hydrofluoric acid..attacks the glass where the wax has been scratched off. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 208 The columns, when attacked [by boring molluscs], must have been washed by the sea. 1879P. Delamotte in Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 89/1 The mordants used in the dyeing are apt to attack the leather.
7. Mus. intr. and trans. (See quot. and cf. attack n. 7.)
1835Court Mag. VI. 264/1 The instruments do not attack properly—that is to say, they do not come in simultaneously with sufficient precision to form a sharp, crisp chord, as if proceeding from a single instrument. 1967Oxford Mail 27 Nov. 6/1 Those boys from the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's..attack their leads with the confidence of professionals.
Add:8. Chess. a. trans. To mount or maintain an attack upon (an opponent's piece or pieces); to place or hold (a square, etc.) under attack.
1735J. Bertin Noble Game of Chess p. vi, Never attack, or defend the king, without a sufficient force. 1797Encycl. Brit. IV. 640/1 To crowd the adversary's game, which may be done by attacking his pieces with the pawns. 1808J. H. Sarratt Treat. Chess I. 151 If..he should play his King's Pawn one step, attacking your Queen's Bishop, you must give him check with your Queen. 1861Chambers's Encycl. II. 799/2 The king cannot castle..when he passes over a square attacked or checked by an adverse piece. 1983W. Tevis Queen's Gambit viii. 129 She pushed her pawn up to rook three, attacking the bishop.
b. absol. or intr.
1745P. Stamma Noble Game of Chess 109 Your first View should be to open the Game so, as to make way for your Pieces to come out, that you may..have them in Readiness, both to attack, and defend. 1796C. Jones Hoyle's Games Improved 145 Be sure you bring out all your Pieces into Play before you begin to attack. 1808J. H. Sarratt Treat. Chess I. 133 If he attacked heedlessly, his adversary might easily retrieve his game. 1861Chambers's Encycl. II. 799/1 These sets of men are arrayed opposite to each other, and attack, defend, and capture, like hostile armies. 1983W. Tevis Queen's Gambit iv. 62 She began attacking on the eighth move.
▪ II. attack, n.|əˈtæk|
Also 7 attaque, attacque.
[f. the vb., or a. F. attaque: cf. It. attacco. (Not in Shakes., Cotgrave, Cockeram: once in Milton.)]
1. a. The act of falling upon with force or arms, of commencing battle; an offensive operation; an onset, an assault. The common military term; opposed to defence.
1667Milton P.L. vi. 248 The dire attack Of fighting Seraphim. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 1084 And bravely scorn to turn their backs Upon the desperatest attacks. 1693Mem. Count Teckely i. 41 The Grand Vizier endeavoured to maintain the Attacques. 1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3913/2 The Enemy..made a Salley out of the Town against Major General Dedem's Attack. 1789Bentham Princ. Legisl. xiii. §2 To compare the means of attack and defence. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 601 Monmouth..conceived that a night attack might be attended with success.
b. ellipt. for: Point of attack, attacking force.
1709Luttrell Brief Rel. VI. 460 All the cannon..will begin to play as to morrow from the 3 several attacks.
2. a. fig. The offensive part in any contest or match; e.g. the bowling in Cricket, a move directed to gain a point in Chess, etc.
1822Burrowes Cycl. III. 345/2 It is not always necessary in the attack to have them [queen and rook] near the adversary's king. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. II. x. 294 [He] taught her the Mortimer attack in the Evans gambit. 1882Daily Tel. 19 May (Cricket), Spofforth and Palmer being entrusted with the attack.
b. Lacrosse. the attack: the ‘attack fields’ collectively; attack field: see quot. 1892.
1885E. T. Sachs Lacrosse for Beginners 43 As matches are played, the ball falls more often to the defence than to the attack. Ibid. 52 The Attack Fields. These two players play rather forward of centre. 1892G. A. Hutchison Outdoor Games 507 The players stand all down the field, from goal-keeper to goal-keeper, a defence man watching one of the opposite attack. Ibid. 508 The three men nearest the opponents' goal (they are called the ‘home’ first, second, and third, first being nearest the goal) should practice throwing at goal... The two players next nearest are called the ‘attack fields’. 1902Westm. Gaz. 28 Apr. 7/3 His place in the attack field.
3. An assault with hostile or bitter words, or action intended to overthrow, injure, or defame.
1751Johnson Rambl. No. 144 ⁋2 The attack upon a rising character. 1804M. Edgeworth Mod. Griselda x. Wks. 1832 XI. 320 Griselda..established herself upon a couch, and began an attack upon Emma. 1850Lynch Theo. Trin. ix. 169 Some who have braved with forehead of flint public attack. 1876Green Short Hist. v. §2 (1882) 227 The knights of the shire united with the burgesses in a joint attack on the royal council.
4. fig. The commencing of operations in order to perform any difficult work. So, jocularly, upon dinner, viands, etc.; cf. 6.
1812Combe (Dr. Syntax) Pictur. xvii. 62 The Doctor then..pronounced the grace..The fierce attack was soon begun. 1874Furnivall Rep. E. Eng. Text Soc. 26 The attack [of the Society] is weakest at the farthest point, Anglo-Saxon. 1875Times 20 Apr. 5/5 The Committee of the Royal Society laid so much stress upon this part of the attack that no less than three instruments were devoted to it.
5. An invasion or access of disease; a fit or bout of illness.
1811Hooper Med. Dict. s.v. Asthma, Its attacks are most frequent during the heats of summer. 1878Seeley Stein III. 543 He suffered from attacks of overpowering giddiness.
6. The commencement of destructive or dissolving action by any physical agent.
1842Penny Cycl. XXIV. 224/1 The attacks of this animal [Teredo] upon piles. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. viii. §7. 187 To..initiate the attack of the oxygen.
7. Mus. [after It. attacca.] The action or manner of beginning a piece, passage, or phrase, in respect of precision and clarity. Also, more generally in the arts, brilliance of style, decisive rendering. Cf. sense 4.
1871Monthly Pkt. Oct. 401 Their splendid ‘attack’, no dropping in one after another... They knew how to look at their music and the conductor both at once. 1879Grove Dict. Mus. I. 100 Attack, a technical expression for decision and spirit in beginning a phrase or passage. 1891Durham Univ. Jrnl. 11 Nov. 216 There was a certain want of precision in the attack. 1905Westm. Gaz. 12 Dec. 3/2 Mr. Runcie has fancy, verve, and what artists call ‘attack’. 1906B. Stoker Personal Rem. H. Irving II. li. 84 In this play Irving was very decided as to the ‘attack’. He had often talked with me about the proper note to strike at the beginning of the play. 1938A. L. Haskell Ballet vii. 198 Riabouchinska is not a purely classical dancer, lacking the necessary hardness and attack. 1956I. Deakin At Ballet 206 Attack: In ballet it has the meaning of the deliberation behind the performance of the various steps. 1961G. Millerson Technique Telev. Production iii. 45 The face would merge into the background—the picture would lack ‘attack’—appear flat. 1962Listener 13 Sept. 409/2 One cannot imagine a performance more remarkable for attack, verve, clarity of articulation, and gradations of tone colour.
8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) attack-aircraft-carrier, attack-bomber, attack-division, attack-formation, attack-order, attack-practice; (sense 5) attack-rate.
1899Daily News 6 Mar. 8/5 Small-pox breaks out, and..the attack rate is..limited to exactly 10 per cent. in each class. Ibid. 27 Dec. 8/4 We..marched four or five miles in regular attack formation. 1901Westm. Gaz. 8 July 7/3 One officer, two non-coms., and twenty men, who march eleven miles and finish at Stickledown Ranges with the attack practice. 1923Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War II. 179 The Companies dressed in attack-order. 1932Auden Orators ii. p. 76 1st Army: 15 attack divisions, 2 ordinary divisions. 1952Amer. Speech XXVII. 4 Search planes, dive bomber, attack bomber. 1957Jane's Fighting Ships 1957–58 407/3 It is the intention to build six nuclear powered, attack aircraft carriers. 1961Lancet 26 Aug. 473/2 Another outbreak of respiratory-syncytial-virus infection, again with a peak attack-rate in infants under 7 months.
[2.] Delete ‘a move directed to gain a point in Chess’ and substitute: a move or series of moves directed to gain esp. material advantage in Chess.
1735J. Bertin Noble Game of Chess p. v, When you are well posted, either for attack or defence, you must not be tempted to take any of your adversary's men, which may divert you from the main design. 1745P. Stamma Noble Game of Chess 114 To form some Scheme for an attack. 1797Encycl. Brit. IV. 641/2 As the queen, rook, and bishop, operate at a distance, it is not always necessary in the attack to have them near the adversary's king. 1932[see Nimzowitsch n.]. 1964Illustr. London News 24 Oct., The word ‘attack’..is really very vague. It indicates a certain keenness in the play, a concentration on definite, and early, objectives. 1984Byte Mar. 289/1 Lazy players who make blunders and initiate half-baked attacks usually lose badly to a program.
▸ attack dog n. orig. and chiefly U.S. a dog trained to attack on command, and kept chiefly for this purpose; also fig.
1943Chicago Daily Tribune 7 Apr. 30/6 Necker..will direct the training of sentry and *attack dogs for the Coast Guard. 1973Press Gaz. (Hillsboro, Ohio) 9 Oct. 9/7 He cited the New York Times as being ‘an attack dog’ and the Washington press corps for ‘bias’. 1978J. Hyams Pool iii. 32 Most homes have..trained attack dogs. 2004I. Calder Untold Story viii. 124 For my first TV interview, my very first, I faced no less than the premier attack dog of television. |