attach

verb

Etymology: From Middle English attachen, from Old French atachier, variant of estachier (“bind”), derived from estache (“stick”), from Frankish *stakkā, *stakō (“stick”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“pole, bar, stick, stake”). Doublet of attack. More at stake, stack. Displaced native Old English þīedan.

1. To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively).

   “You need to attach the carabiner to your harness.”

   “An officer is attached to a certain regiment, company, or ship.”

2. To adhere; to be attached.

   “The great interest which attaches to the mere knowledge of these facts cannot be doubted.”

3. To include an attachment with a communication (especially an email or other electronic communication).

   “I've attached the contract to this email.”

4. To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest.

   “Dower will attach.”

   “it therefore becomes important to know at what time the lien for taxes will attach.”

5. 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.

   “attached to a friend; attaching others to us by wealth or flattery”

   “incapable of attaching a sensible man”

6. To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; with to.

   “to attach great importance to a particular circumstance”

   “Some of the guilt must attach to the parents.”

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

   “Then homeward every man attach the hand / Of his fair mistress.”

8. To arrest, seize.

   “Eftsoones the Gard, which on his state did wait, / Attacht that faitor false, and bound him strait […]”

   “Old lord, I cannot blame thee, / Who am myself attach'd with weariness / To th' dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.”