DictionaryAI

attract

verb
USuh-TRAKT/əˈtɹækt/

Formsattracts, attracting, attracted

3 meanings of attract

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To draw someone's interest, attention, or desire through emotional, moral, or other personal appeal; to invite or allure.

    Museums attract visitors who want more than a quick photo stop.

    Her quiet confidence attracted admirers wherever she went.

    Similardraw, lure, entice, allure, tempt

    Oppositerepel, deter, discourage, repulse

    Note

    Here the pull is on a person or a mind, carried over from the physical pull. The object can be the people drawn, such as customers or admirers, or the faculty itself: attention, interest, the gaze. The passive with by has a long pedigree, and Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) has "Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze." The drawing power sits with the subject, whether advertising, a smile or beauty, not with the one who is drawn.

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To exert a pull on something, drawing it closer without physical contact.

    Opposite magnetic poles attract each other across a small gap.

    A charged balloon attracts small bits of paper from across the table.

    Similardraw, pull

    Oppositerepel, repulse

    Note

    The physical sense the others grow from: Latin attrahere, "to draw to," built from ad ("to") and trahere ("to draw"). Nothing touches; the pull works across a gap, as a magnet draws iron filings. William Derham's Physico-Theology (1713) has all bodies mutually attracting one another, and the verb still serves biology, where an inflammatory response can attract and trap cellular debris.

  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To incur; to bring something, such as a charge, penalty, or criticism, upon oneself.

    Late payments attract interest at two percent per month.

    The senator's remarks attracted widespread criticism from both parties.

    Similarincur, draw, invite, provoke, earn

    Note

    Costs and consequences become the thing drawn in. The subject is usually an act or circumstance rather than a person, as when using the minibar attracts additional charges, so the sentence reads as a rule applying itself. Charges, interest and penalties are the natural objects. The movement is the same drawing-toward as in the magnetic sense, but what arrives is a bill.

Practice

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Origin

From Latin attractus, the past participle of attrahere ("to draw to, attract"), formed from ad ("to") plus trahere ("to draw").