attachment
noun/əˈtæt͡ʃmənt/
Etymology From French attachement. By surface analysis, attach + -ment.
8 senses
- 1The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching.
- 2A strong bonding with or fondness for someone or something.
- 3A dependence, especially a strong one.
- 4A device attached to a piece of equipment or a tool.
- 5The means by which something is physically attached.
- 6A file sent along with a message, usually an email.
- 7Taking a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt.
- 8The act or process by which any (downward) leader…
1
The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching.
- The “implantation window” is a short, specific phase during which attachment of the blastocyst occurs.2005, Rebecca N. Baergen, Manual of Benirschke and Kaufmann's Pathology of the Human Placenta, page 71:
2
A strong bonding with or fondness for someone or something.
- I have such an attachment towards my fiancé!
3
A dependence, especially a strong one.
- Through every other kind of drug experience, however, ran his attachment to alcohol.2003, Griffith Edwards, Alcohol: The World's Favorite Drug, page 63:
4
A device attached to a piece of equipment or a tool.
- Zimchenko's phone had a tape attachment, […]1978, Walter H. Wager, Time of reckoning, page 194:
5
The means by which something is physically attached.
- [The umbilical cord is] the attachment connecting the fetus with the placenta.2012, Sinikka Elliott, Not My Kid: What Parents Believe about the Sex Lives of Their Teenagers, page 46:
6
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A file sent along with a message, usually an email.
7
Law Taking a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt.
- attachment of earnings
8
Climatology, Meteorology, Natural sciences The act or process by which any (downward) leader connects to any available (upward) streamer in a lightning flash.
- 2009, Jakke Mäkelä, Eero Karvinen, Niko Porjo, Antti Mäkelä and Tapio Tuomi, Attachment of Natural Lightning Flashes to Trees: Preliminary Statistical Characteristics, published in the Journal of Lightning Research, volume 1
- Derived terms
- aeolian attachment, attachment disorder, attachment of earnings, attachment parenting, attachment therapy, chemoattachment, cryoattachment, misattachment, nonattachment, non-attachment, overattachment, postattachment, preattachment, preferential attachment, reactive attachment disorder, reattachment, shower attachment, unattachment, writ of attachment