The Collaborative International Dictionary
Attach \At*tach"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Attached; p. pr. & vb. n. Attaching.] [OF. atachier, F. attacher, to tie or fasten: cf. Celt. tac, tach, nail, E. tack a small nail, tack to fasten. Cf. Attack, and see Tack.]
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To bind, fasten, tie, or connect; to make fast or join; as, to attach one thing to another by a string, by glue, or the like.
The shoulder blade is . . . attached only to the muscles.
--Paley.A huge stone to which the cable was attached.
--Macaulay. To connect; to place so as to belong; to assign by authority; to appoint; as, an officer is attached to a certain regiment, company, or ship.
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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; as, attached to a friend; attaching others to us by wealth or flattery.
Incapable of attaching a sensible man.
--Miss Austen.God . . . by various ties attaches man to man.
--Cowper. -
To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; -- with to; as, to attach great importance to a particular circumstance.
Top this treasure a curse is attached.
--Bayard Taylor. To take, seize, or lay hold of. [Obs.]
--Shak.-
To take by legal authority:
To arrest by writ, and bring before a court, as to answer for a debt, or a contempt; -- applied to a taking of the person by a civil process; being now rarely used for the arrest of a criminal.
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To seize or take (goods or real estate) by virtue of a writ or precept to hold the same to satisfy a judgment which may be rendered in the suit. See Attachment, 4.
The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treason.
--Miss Yonge.Attached column (Arch.), a column engaged in a wall, so that only a part of its circumference projects from it.
Syn: To affix; bind; tie; fasten; connect; conjoin; subjoin; annex; append; win; gain over; conciliate.
Column \Col"umn\, n. [L. columna, fr. columen, culmen, fr. cellere (used only in comp.), akin to E. excel, and prob. to holm. See Holm, and cf. Colonel.]
(Arch.) A kind of pillar; a cylindrical or polygonal support for a roof, ceiling, statue, etc., somewhat ornamented, and usually composed of base, shaft, and capital. See Order.
Anything resembling, in form or position, a column in architecture; an upright body or mass; a shaft or obelisk; as, a column of air, of water, of mercury, etc.; the Column Vend[^o]me; the spinal column.
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(Mil.)
A body of troops formed in ranks, one behind the other; -- contradistinguished from line. Compare Ploy, and Deploy.
A small army.
(Naut.) A number of ships so arranged as to follow one another in single or double file or in squadrons; -- in distinction from ``line'', where they are side by side.
(Print.) A perpendicular set of lines, not extending across the page, and separated from other matter by a rule or blank space; as, a column in a newspaper.
(Arith.) A perpendicular line of figures.
(Bot.) The body formed by the union of the stamens in the Mallow family, or of the stamens and pistil in the orchids.
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(Print.) one of a series of articles written in a periodical, usually under the same title and at regular intervals; it may be written and signed by one or more authors, or may appear pseudonymously or anonymously, as an editorial column. ``Safire's weekly column On Language in the New York Times is usually more interesting (and probably more accurate) than his political column.''
--P. CassidyAttached column. See under Attach, v. t.
Clustered column. See under Cluster, v. t.
Column rule, a thin strip of brass separating columns of type in the form, and making a line between them in printing.