To bind, fasten, tie, or connect; to make fast or join; as, to attach one thing to another by a string, by glue, or the like. The shoulder blade is . . . attached only to the muscles. Paley. A huge stone to which the cable was attached. Macaulay.
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.
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.
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.
To take, seize, or lay hold of. [Obs.] Shak.
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.
To adhere; to be attached. The great interest which attaches to the mere knowledge of these facts cannot be doubted. Brougham.
To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest; as, dower will attach. Cooley.
An attachment. [Obs.] Pope.
98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.