What does "attach" mean?
Attach: To connect; to place so as to belong; to assign by authority; to appoint; as, an officer is attached to a certain regiment, company, or ship.
Additional senses
- 2.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; as, attached to a friend; attaching others to us by wealth or flattery. Incapable of attaching a sensible man. Miss Austen. God . . . by various ties attaches man to man. Cowper.
- 3.To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; -- with to; as, to attach great importance to a particular circumstance. Top this treasure a curse is attached. Bayard Taylor.
- 4.To take, seize, or lay hold of. [Obs.] Shak.
- 5.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. The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treason. Miss Yonge. Attached column (Arch.), a column engaged in a wall, so that only a part of its circumference projects from it.
- 6.To adhere; to be attached. The great interest which attaches to the mere knowledge of these facts cannot be doubted. Brougham.
- 7.To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest; as, dower will attach. Cooley.
- 8.An attachment. [Obs.] Pope.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00