to attack

Definition of to attack in English English dictionary: come; come at
As I backed away, he came at me with a knife.; go; blitz; set about
Two youths set about him.; An attempt to cause damage or injury to, or to somehow detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault; To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar); 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); To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets; To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket; Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net; The sudden onset of a disease; The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team; To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly; To apply violent force to someone or something; {n} an assault, onset, charge, brunt; {v} to assault, fall upon, or to, invade; To begin to affect; to begin to act upon, injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste; If you attack a job or a problem, you start to deal with it in an energetic way. Any attempt to attack the budget problem is going to have to in some way deal with those issues; the act of attacking; "attacks on women increased last year"; "they made an attempt on his life"; The beginning of corrosive, decomposing, or destructive action, by a chemical agent; To make an onset or attack; To set to work upon, as upon a task or problem, or some object of labor or investigation; strong criticism; "he published an unexpected attack on my work"; an initial offensive action made by extending the sword arm and continuously threatening the opponent's target; If you attack a person, belief, idea, or act, you criticize them strongly. He publicly attacked the people who've been calling for secret ballot nominations A newspaper ran an editorial attacking him for being a showman. Attack is also a noun. The role of the state as a prime mover in planning social change has been under attack The committee yesterday launched a scathing attack on British business for failing to invest; set to work upon; turn one's energies vigorously to a task; "I attacked the problem as soon as I got out of bed"; In games such as football, when one team attacks the opponent's goal, they try to score a goal. Now the US is controlling the ball and attacking the opponent's goal The goal was just reward for Villa's decision to attack constantly in the second half. Attack is also a noun. Lee was at the hub of some incisive attacks in the second half; A parameter that sets the speed at which an envelope or dynamics processor starts With an envelope, Attack sets the speed at which the enveloped setting travels from 0 to its nominal value In a dynamics processor, it sets the speed at which the processor starts working; An attempt to cause damage or injury to, or to somehow detract from the worth or credibility of a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault; Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side; 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"; 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; Either a successful or unsuccessful attempt at breaking part or all of a cryptosystem See algebraic attack, birthday attack, brute force attack, chosen ciphertext attack, chosen plaintext attack, differential cryptanalysis, known plaintext attack, linear cryptanalysis, middleperson attack; launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with; "Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II"; "Serbian forces assailed Bosnian towns all week; An access of disease; a fit of sickness; The initial offensive action made by fully and completely extending the arm, and continuously and progressively threatening the opponent's target; A procedure performed on (or with the assistance of) an IT system that, if successful, either provides advantage to the attacker or results in damage to the system, to the enterprise that employs the system, or to the enterprise's mission or people; An movement signaled by extending the sword arm, which gives the fencer the right of way; ideas or actions intended to deal with a problem or situation; "his approach to every problem is to draw up a list of pros and cons"; "an attack on inflation"; "his plan of attack was misguided"; 1) A discrete malicious action of debilitating intent inflicted by one entity upon another A threat might attack a critical infrastructure to destroy or incapacitate it 2) Intentional attempt to bypass the physical or information security measures and controls protecting an IS; the act of trying to bypass security controls on a system An attack may be active, resulting in the alteration of data; or passive, resulting in the release of data Note: The fact that an attack is made does not necessarily mean that it will succeed The degree of success depends on the vulnerability of the system or activity and the effectiveness of existing countermeasures Attack is often used as a synonym for a specific exploit See also brute force, denial of service, distributed denial of service, hijacking, social engineering, sniffing, spoofing, trojan horse, virus; An assault on system security that derives from an intelligent threat, for example, an intelligent act that is a deliberate attempt (especially in the sense of method or technique) to evade security services and violate the security policy of a system; If something such as a disease, a chemical, or an insect attacks something, it harms or spoils it. The virus seems to have attacked his throat Several key crops failed when they were attacked by pests. Attack is also a noun. The virus can actually destroy those white blood cells, leaving the body wide open to attack from other infections; An assault upon one's feelings or reputation with unfriendly or bitter words; The act of attacking, or falling on with force or violence; an onset; an assault; opposed to defense; To fall upon with force; to assail, as with force and arms; to assault; attack in speech or writing; "The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker"; n the attempt by one team to terminate the play by hitting the ball to the floor on the opponent's side The term refers to an individual effort or a combined team offensive pattern; the attempt to justify the projection of guilt onto others, demonstrating their sinfulness and guilt so that we may feel free of it; because attack is always a projection of responsibility for the separation, it is never justified; also used to denote the thought of separation from God, for which we believe God will attack and punish us in return (Note -- " attack" and " anger" are used as virtual synonyms ); {f} assault, assail; criticize a person or something; An attempt to bypass security controls on a computer The attack may alter, release, or deny data Whether an attack will succeed depends on the vulnerability of the computer system and the effectiveness of existing countermeasures; to move with a threat e g so that an opponent's piece may be taken; more generally, to move pieces towards e g the king's side in the hope of mate Also used to describe some opening systems initiated by White, e g King's Indian Attack; A time in which one attacks. The offence of a battle; a sudden occurrence of an uncontrollable condition; "an attack of diarrhea"; The first part of the sound of a note In a synthesizer envelope, the attack segment is the segment during which the envelope rises from its initial value (usually zero) to the attack level (often the maximum level for the envelope) at a rate determined by the attack time parameter; To attack a person or place means to try to hurt or damage them using physical violence. He bundled the old lady into her hallway and brutally attacked her While Haig and Foch argued, the Germans attacked Attack is also a noun. a campaign of air attacks on strategic targets Refugees had come under attack from federal troops; An action conducted by an adversary, the attacker, on a potential victim (From the glossary of State of the Practice of Intrusion Detection Technologies ); the initial stage of an envelope Refers to the time from the beginning of the sound to its highest or maximum level; an offensive move in a sport or game; "they won the game with a 10-hit attack in the 9th inning"; A setting to work upon some task, etc; intense adverse criticism; "Clinton directed his fire at the Republican Party"; "the government has come under attack"; "don't give me any flak"; The initial impact of a wine If not strong or flavourful, the wine is considered "feeble" "Feeble" wines are sometimes encountered among those vinified in a year where late rain just before harvest diluted desirable grape content; {i} assault; spasm, seizure; onslaught; The initial impact of a wine If not strong or flavorful, the wine is considered "feeble" "Feeble" wines are sometimes encountered among those vinified in a year where late rain just before harvest diluted desirable grape content; a decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase an offensive move in a sport or game; "they won the game with a 10-hit attack in the 9th inning"; The beginning of a sound; the initial transient of a musical note; In audio terms, the beginning of a sound What type of attack a sound has is determined by the sound's attack time, or how long it takes for the volume of the sound to go from silence to maximum level It is critical to consider the attack time of sounds when applying processing Compression, gating, and other types of processors can destroy a sound's attack, changing the character and quality of the audio Reverbs can also be affected by attack time; careful use of a 'verb's predelay parameter will allow you to optimize the reverb for different types of attacks; An attempt to subvert or bypass a system's security, which may or may not be successful Attacks may be active or passive An active attack attempts to alter or destroy data A passive attack attempts to intercept and read data without altering it See also: Brute Force attack Ciphertext-only attack Denial of Service Hijacking Known-plaintext attack NFS and NIS attacks Password attacks Password sniffing; attack someone physically or emotionally; "The mugger assaulted the woman"; "Nightmares assailed him regularly"