Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To fasten, secure, or join.
  • intransitive verb To connect as an adjunct or associated condition or part.
  • intransitive verb To affix or append; add.
  • intransitive verb To ascribe or assign.
  • intransitive verb To bind by emotional ties, as of affection or loyalty.
  • intransitive verb To assign (personnel) to a military unit on a temporary basis.
  • intransitive verb Law To seize (property) by legal writ.
  • intransitive verb To adhere, belong, or relate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In law, to take by legal authority.
  • To take (real or personal property) by legal warrant, to be held for the satisfaction of the judgment that may be rendered in a suit.
  • See attachment.
  • To lay hold of; seize.
  • To take, seize, or lay hold on, by moral force, as by affection or interest; fasten or bind by moral influence; win: as, his kindness attached us all to him.
  • To tack or fix to; fasten in any manner, as one thing to another, by either natural or artificial means; bind; tie; cause to adhere.
  • Figuratively, to connect; associate: as, to attach a particular significance to a word.
  • To join to or with in action or function; connect as an associate or adjunct; adjoin for duty or companionship: as, an officer is attached to such a ship, regiment, battalion, etc.; our regiment is attached to the 1st brigade; this man is attached to my service; he attached himself to me for the entire journey.
  • To adhere; pertain, as a quality or circumstance; belong or be incident: with to.
  • To be fixed or fastened; rest as an appurtenance: with on or upon.
  • To come into operation; take or have effect.
  • noun An attachment.
  • noun An attack.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete An attachment.
  • transitive verb To bind, fasten, tie, or connect; to make fast or join.
  • transitive verb To connect; to place so as to belong; to assign by authority; to appoint.
  • transitive verb To win the heart of; to connect by ties of love or self-interest; to attract; to fasten or bind by moral influence; -- with to
  • transitive verb To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; -- with to.
  • transitive verb obsolete To take, seize, or lay hold of.
  • transitive verb To take by legal authority: (a) To arrest by writ, and bring before a court, as to answer for a debt, or a contempt; -- applied to a taking of the person by a civil process; being now rarely used for the arrest of a criminal. (b) To seize or take (goods or real estate) by virtue of a writ or precept to hold the same to satisfy a judgment which may be rendered in the suit. See Attachment, 4.
  • transitive verb (Arch.) a column engaged in a wall, so that only a part of its circumference projects from it.
  • intransitive verb To adhere; to be attached.
  • intransitive verb To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete, law To arrest, seize.
  • verb To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb create social or emotional ties
  • verb take temporary possession of as a security, by legal authority
  • verb become attached
  • verb cause to be attached
  • verb be attached; be in contact with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English attachen, from Old French attachier, alteration of estachier, from estache, stake, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French atachier (French: attacher, Italian: attaccare, Spanish: atacar, Portuguese atacar).

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