attach definition

1. 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)

2. 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.

3. 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)

4. 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)

5. To take, seize, or lay hold of.

6. To take by legal authority: 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. 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. "The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treason." (Miss Yonge) Attached column, a column engaged in a wall, so that only a part of its circumference projects from it.

Synonyms: To affix, bind, tie, fasten, connect, conjoin, subjoin, annex, append, win, gain over, conciliate.

Origin: OF. Atachier, F. Attacher, to tie or fasten: cf. Celt. Tac, tach, nail, E. Tack a small nail, tack to fasten. Cf. Attack, and see Tack.