DictionaryAI

attachment

noun
uh-TACH-muhnt/əˈtæt͡ʃmənt/

Pluralattachments

8 meanings of attachment

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  1. 1
    nouncountable or uncountable
    A strong bond with or fondness for a person, animal, or thing.

    Over the years she developed a strong attachment to the small coastal town.

    Their mutual attachment grew through years of shared work.

    Similaraffection, fondness, bond, devotion, love

    Oppositeindifference, detachment, aversion, dislike

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    A computer file transmitted together with a message, typically an email.

    The report wouldn't open because the attachment was corrupted.

    He downloaded the attachment and saved it to his desktop.

    Note

    Computing took the everyday idea of something fastened on and gave it to email. Technically, the file travels as a separate encoded part, and the recipient's mail program decodes it and stores it apart from the message body. In use, you open, download or save an attachment, and a file is sent as an attachment.

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    A device fitted to a piece of equipment or a tool to extend its function.

    The food processor includes a slicing attachment for vegetables.

    Each tractor attachment serves a different farming task.

    Similaraccessory, add-on, fitting, implement

  4. 4
    noununcountable
    The act or process of attaching something, whether physically or figuratively.

    The attachment of the shelf to the wall required heavy bolts.

    Emotional attachment to a cause often grows slowly over time.

    Similarfastening, fixing, connection, joining

    Oppositedetachment, removal, separation

    Note

    The noun of action behind every other meaning. It comes from French attachement, which English also reads as attach plus -ment. Because it names the attaching itself, it usually takes of for what is attached and to for where: the attachment of a shelf to a wall. Embryologists use it plainly for a blastocyst fixing itself in place during implantation, the same physical sense in clinical dress.

  5. 5
    noununcountable
    A state of dependence, especially a strong reliance on someone or something.

    Critics warned of the country's attachment to imported oil.

    Years of attachment to the medication made quitting difficult.

    Similardependence, reliance, dependency, addiction

    Oppositeindependence

    Note

    Here the bond has turned into need. Griffith Edwards writes of a drinker's attachment to alcohol, and the word carries the hint of a hold that is hard to break. It takes to, just like the fondness meaning, and only context separates the two. An attachment to a town is affection; an attachment to a drug or to imported oil is reliance.

  6. 6
    nouncountable
    The means by which one thing is physically fastened to another.

    The bracket serves as the attachment between the beam and the post.

    A weak attachment caused the sign to fall in the wind.

    Similarconnection, fastening, fixing, joint, coupling

    Note

    Here the word names the fastening itself rather than the act of fastening. A bracket between beam and post is one, and so is the umbilical cord, which Sinikka Elliott calls the attachment connecting the fetus with the placenta. It differs from the add-on device in purpose: that attachment adds a function, while this one simply holds two things together.

  7. 7
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The legal seizure of a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt.

    Creditors sought an attachment of the company's assets.

    The judge granted an attachment against the debtor's wages.

    Similarseizure, sequestration, garnishment, levy

    Note

    Law's attachment fastens a court's hold onto a debtor's property. The court orders the property seized or frozen, often before judgment, so that it is still there when the creditor's claim is settled. The word is usually followed by of or against, naming what is caught: an attachment of assets, an attachment against wages. In the set phrase attachment of earnings, it reaches the debtor's pay.

  8. 8
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The point at which a downward leader connects with an available upward streamer in a lightning flash.

    Researchers studied the attachment between the stepped leader and the rising streamer.

    High-speed cameras captured the attachment as the strike completed its path to the ground.

    Note

    Lightning researchers use the word for the instant the channel closes. A descending stepped leader meets an upward streamer, completing the path and setting off the return stroke. The word also takes to for whatever the flash lands on, as in the 2009 study by Jakke Mäkelä and colleagues, Attachment of Natural Lightning Flashes to Trees.

Practice

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Origin

From French "attachement"; by surface analysis it can be broken down as "attach" plus the suffix "-ment".