attain

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To gain as an objective; achieve: attain a diploma by hard work.
2. v. To arrive at, as by virtue of persistence or the passage of time. See Synonyms at reach.
3. v. To succeed in a directed effort, process, or progression: attained to high office; eventually attained to wisdom.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To touch; strike; hit.
2. To touch upon; mention.
3. To convict; condemn. Compare attaint, v., 3-5.
4. To come so near as to touch; reach, achieve, or accomplish (an end or object) by continued effort; come into possession of; acquire; gain.
5. To come to or arrive at (a place); reach (a place, time, or state).
6. To reach in excellence or degree; equal.
7. To overtake; come up with: as, “not attaining him in time,” Bacon.
8. To come to know; experience. Synonyms
9. To reach; come or arrive by motion, bodily or mental exertion, or efforts of any kind: followed by to or unto.
10. To pertain; have relation.
11. n. Something attained. Glanville.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To accomplish; to achieve.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To achieve or accomplish, that is, to reach by efforts; to gain; to compass.
2. v. Obs. with a material object. To gain or obtain possession of; to acquire.
3. v. obsolete To get at the knowledge of; to ascertain.
4. v. To reach or come to, by progression or motion; to arrive at.
5. v. obsolete To overtake.
6. v. To reach in excellence or degree; to equal.
7. v. To come or arrive, by motion, growth, bodily exertion, or efforts toward a place, object, state, etc.; to reach.
8. v. To come or arrive, by an effort of mind.
9. n. obsolete Attainment.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. reach a destination, either real or abstract
2. v. reach a point in time, or a certain state or level
3. v. find unexpectedly
4. v. to gain with effort