# attachment

Pronunciation: say "uh-TACH-muhnt" /əˈtæt͡ʃmənt/

## Noun

1. A strong bond with or fondness for a person, animal, or thing.
   - Simple: A strong feeling of love or closeness toward 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._
2. A computer file transmitted together with a message, typically an email.
   - Simple: A computer file that you send together with an email or message.
   - _The report wouldn't open because the attachment was corrupted._
   - _He downloaded the attachment and saved it to his desktop._
3. A device fitted to a piece of equipment or a tool to extend its function.
   - Simple: An extra part that you add to a tool or machine to help it do a job.
   - _The food processor includes a slicing attachment for vegetables._
   - _Each tractor attachment serves a different farming task._
4. The act or process of attaching something, whether physically or figuratively.
   - Simple: The act of joining one thing onto another, either in a physical way or as a feeling.
   - _The attachment of the shelf to the wall required heavy bolts._
   - _Emotional attachment to a cause often grows slowly over time._
5. A state of dependence, especially a strong reliance on someone or something.
   - Simple: A strong need to have or rely on someone or something.
   - _Critics warned of the country's attachment to imported oil._
   - _Years of attachment to the medication made quitting difficult._
6. The means by which one thing is physically fastened to another.
   - Simple: The part or material that holds one thing onto another.
   - _The bracket serves as the attachment between the beam and the post._
   - _A weak attachment caused the sign to fall in the wind._
7. The legal seizure of a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt.
   - Simple: A legal way of taking someone's property to pay a debt ordered by a court.
   - _Creditors sought an attachment of the company's assets._
   - _The judge granted an attachment against the debtor's wages._
8. The point at which a downward leader connects with an available upward streamer in a lightning flash.
   - Simple: The moment when a downward lightning channel links up with an upward spark from the ground.
   - _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._

## Origin

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

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/attachment (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).