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1. Launch assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with
   "Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II";
   - assail
    
2. Aggressively challenge in speech or writing
   "The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker";
   - round, assail, lash out, snipe, assault
    
3. Take the initiative and go on the offensive
   "The visiting team started to attack"; "The Serbs attacked the village at night";
   - aggress
    
4. Use aggressive force against
   - assail, assault, set on
    
5. Set to work upon; turn one's energies vigorously to a task
   "I attacked the problem as soon as I got out of bed"
    
6. Begin to injure
   "The cancer cells are attacking his liver"; "Rust is attacking the metal"

1. (military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons)
   "the attack began at dawn";
   - onslaught, onset, onrush
    
2. An offensive move in a sport or game
   "they won the game with a 10-hit attack in the 9th inning"
    
3. Intense adverse criticism
   "the government has come under attack"; "he published an unexpected attack on my work";
   - fire, flak [informal], flack, blast [informal], stick [Brit, informal]
    
4. Ideas or actions intended to deal with a problem or situation
   "an attack on inflation"; "his plan of attack was misguided";
   - approach, plan of attack
    
5. The act of attacking
   "attacks on women increased last year";
   - attempt
    
6. A decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase
   - tone-beginning
    
7. A sudden occurrence of an uncontrollable condition
   "an attack of diarrhoea"
    
8. The onset of a corrosive or destructive process (as by a chemical agent)
   "the film was sensitive to attack by acids"; "open to attack by the elements"

Derived forms: attacks, attacking, attacked

Type of: act, affect, affliction, begin, beginning, commence, commencement, conceptualisation [Brit], conceptualization, crime, criminal offence [Brit, Cdn], criminal offense [US], criticise [Brit], criticism, criticize, damn [informal], degeneration, devolution, fight, formulation, get, get down, knock [informal], law-breaking, military operation, move, op [informal], operation, pick apart, play, set about, set out, start, start out, struggle, turn, unfavorable judgment [US], unfavourable judgment [Brit, Cdn]

Encyclopedia: Attack, attack, skip, attack, attack offense