attack
n. countablen. an act of trying to hurt someone or damage something using force. It can also mean a sudden period of illness, like a heart attack.
n. an instance of using physical force or weapons to cause injury or damage; alternatively, a sudden onset of a medical condition or a focused attempt to compromise a computer system.
The army launched a sudden attack at dawn.
Security experts warned that the website was vulnerable to a cyber attack if the software was not updated immediately.
While the physical attack was repelled by the fortress walls, the psychological impact of the siege began to erode the morale of the defending soldiers over the following weeks.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Italian a- Proto-Indo-European *dews-? Proto-Indo-European *dus- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwís Latin dis- Old French des- Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- Proto-Germanic *stikaną Proto-West Germanic *stekander. Old French atachier Old French destachier Middle French destacherbor. Italian distaccare Italian staccare Italian attaccarebor. French attaquer French attaquebor. English attack Borrowed from French attaque, derived from the verb attaquer, from Italian attaccare (“to join, attach”) (used in attaccare battaglia (“to join battle”)), from Frankish *stakkijan (“to stick, stick to, attach”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Middle English onresen, from Old English onrǣsan (“to attack”); and Middle English resinge (“an assault, attack”) (compare Old English onrǣs (“an attack”)).
Often takes the preposition 'on' or 'against' to indicate the target.
an attack to the cityan attack on the cityThe noun attack is followed by the preposition 'on' when identifying the target, not 'to'.