attempted

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of attempt.

   She attempted the summit twice before the weather forced a retreat.

   The students attempted every question on the final exam.

   Note

   One regular -ed spelling does double duty. As simple past it stands alone (she attempted the climb). As past participle it follows have or builds the passive (the climb was attempted twice). In older texts the verb can mean to tempt, now obsolete, or to attack and try to take by force, now archaic. Its crime sense, a real but failed effort, is what lies behind the adjective of failed deeds.

2. 2
   adjective

   Tried but not brought to completion, with the implication that the effort failed.

   The attempted escape ended with both prisoners back in their cells.

   Investigators treated the blaze as an attempted insurance fraud.

   Similarfailed, unsuccessful, abortive, foiled, thwarted

   Oppositesuccessful, completed

   Note

   An adjective that stands in front of a noun naming a deed, often a crime or a seizure of power: attempted robbery, an attempted coup. The noun names what was aimed at, and attempted says it did not come off. It does not compare, since nothing is more attempted than something else. In legal use the phrase names an offense in its own right, which is why someone can face jail for an attempted robbery.

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