attempt
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Late 14th century, from Old French atempter, from Latin attemptō (“I try, solicit”), from ad (“to”) + temptare, more correctly tentare (“to try”); see tempt. The noun is from the 1530s, the sense "an assault on somebody's life, assassination attempt" (French attentat) is from 1580.
Pronunciation [edit]
Verb [edit]
attempt (third-person singular simple present attempts, present participle attempting, simple past and past participle attempted)
- To try.
- If you are feeling depressed, you have to attempt to recover.
- A group of 80 budding mountaineers attempted Kilimanjaro, but 30 of them didn't make it to the top.
Usage notes [edit]
- This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to try
Noun [edit]
attempt (plural attempts)
- The action of trying at something. [1530]
- 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.
- 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
- But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea
- An assault or attack, especially an assassination attempt. [1580]
- 1584 No man can charge us of any attempt against the realm. (Allen's Defence Of English Catholics, cited after Edinburgh review 1883, p. 378)
Usage notes [edit]
- Adjectives often applied to "attempt": first, failed, desperate, last, half-hearted, unsuccessful, serious, successful, feeble, new, honest, vain, sincere, ambitious, earnest, clumsy, direct, hard, brilliant, official, useless, clever, sophisticated, amateurish.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
the action of trying at something
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attack
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Statistics [edit]
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Most common English words before 1923: drawn · field · street · #829: attempt · soft · officers · likely
External links [edit]
- attempt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- attempt in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- attempt at OneLook Dictionary Search
