attempt

verb

/əˈtɛmpt/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin temptō Latin attemptōder. Old French atempterbor. Middle English attempten English attempt Late 14th century, as Middle English attempten, from Old French atempter, from Latin attemptō (“to try, solicit”), from ad- (“to”) + temptō; see tempt. The noun is from the 1530s, the sense "an assault on somebody's life, assassination attempt" (French attentat) is from 1580. By surface analysis, at- + tempt.

derived from attemptō
derived from atempter
inherited from attempten

Definitions

1
To try.
- to attempt an escape from prison
- I attempted to sing, but my throat was too hoarse.
- A group of 80 budding mountaineers attempted Kilimanjaro, but 30 of them didn’t make it to the top.
2
To try to move, by entreaty, by afflictions, or by temptations
To try to move, by entreaty, by afflictions, or by temptations; to tempt.
- Yet since I see you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.
- It made the laughter of an afternoon / That Vivien should attempt the blameless king.
3
To try to win, subdue, or overcome.
- one who attempts the virtue of a woman
- Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further: / Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute.
›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  To attack
  To attack; to make an effort or attack upon; to try to take by force.
  - to attempt the enemy’s camp
  - without attempting his adversary’s life
2. 5
  To make a substantial but unsuccessful effort (to commit a crime).
  - Whoever takes a direct and immediate step towards the realisation of the offence as envisaged by them attempts to commit an offence.
3. 6
  The action of trying at something.
  - We made an attempt to cross the stream, but didn’t manage.
  - This poem is much better than the feeble attempt of mine.
  - It was worth the attempt.
4. 7
  An assault or attack, especially an assassination attempt.
  - No man can charge us of any attempt against the realm.
5. 8
  A substantial but unsuccessful effort (to commit a crime).
  - Whoever voluntarily abandons the further commission of the offence or prevents its completion incurs no penalty for attempt.
6. 9
  An act of trying to commit suicide
  - Her attempt was not successful, and resulted in her being hospitalized.

The neighborhood

synonymtake a stab at
synonymtake a run at
synonymassay
synonymessay
synonymseek
synonymeffort
synonymtry
synonymbid

Derived

apetempt, attemptability, attemptable, attempter, attemptive, unattempted, unattempting, reattempt, attemptless, nonattempt

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at attempt. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at attempt. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at attempt

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA