attach
Americanverb (used with object)
-
attaches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
attached,
past participle, past
-
attaching
present participle
-
to fasten or affix; join; connect.
to attach a photograph to an application with a staple.
- Antonyms:
- detach
-
to join in action or function; make part of.
to attach oneself to a group.
-
Military. to place on temporary duty with or in assistance to a military unit.
-
to include as a quality or condition of something.
One proviso is attached to this legacy.
-
to assign or attribute.
to attach significance to a gesture.
-
to bind by ties of affection or regard.
You always attach yourself to people who end up hurting you.
-
Law. to take (persons or property) by legal authority.
-
Obsolete. to lay hold of; seize.
verb (used without object)
-
attaches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
attached,
past participle, past
-
attaching
present participle
verb
-
to join, fasten, or connect
-
(reflexive or passive) to become associated with or join, as in a business or other venture
he attached himself to the expedition
-
to be inherent (in) or connected (with)
responsibility attaches to the job
-
to attribute or ascribe
to attach importance to an event
-
to include or append, esp as a condition
a proviso is attached to the contract
-
(usually passive) military to place on temporary duty with another unit
-
(usually passive) to put (a member of an organization) to work in a different unit or agency, either with an expectation of reverting to, or while retaining some part of, the original working arrangement
-
to appoint officially
-
law to arrest or take (a person, property, etc) with lawful authority
-
obsolete to seize
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
attachsimple
-
attachessimple
-
have attachedperfect
-
has attachedperfect
-
am attachingprogressive
-
are attachingprogressive
-
is attachingprogressive
-
have been attachingperfect progressive
-
has been attachingperfect progressive
Past
-
attachedsimple
-
had attachedperfect
-
was attachingprogressive
-
were attachingprogressive
-
had been attachingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of attach
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English atachen, from Anglo-French atacher “to seize,” Old French atachier “to fasten,” alteration of estachier “to fasten with or to a stake,” from estach(e), from Frankish stakka “stake”; cf. stake 1
Explanation
Use the verb attach when you need to join things together, like a stamp that you attach to a letter. When you attach something, you join it or tie it to something else. The word can be used to show physically joining things, like a printer that you attach to your computer, or to show a strong personal connection. For example, you can attach yourself to a political cause or to a group of friends.
Vocabulary lists containing attach
"Hitching a Ride"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 5
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"Growing Together" and "When I Grow Up"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Each player wears a thin black belt which is cinched tightly around the waist with one flag attach to each hip.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026
Although BFT could break down E-cadherin, the toxin did not appear to attach directly to that protein.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026
Struggles to grow ad revenue reveal the downside of AI for Internet companies as consumers rely more on chatbots and agents to which tech companies have yet to attach ad features.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
The resultant volatility has led analysts to attach a much higher equity risk premium to Korean stocks and Moe maintains this explains roughly half of the Kospi’s 40% drop.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026
“I’m going to attach this staircase to the wall, see? Like so? And then put shelves way up high for the cats to climb to. It’ll be cat paradise.”
From "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate
What if it attaches conditions that force religious schools to choose between accessing public benefits and compromising their values?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
“I’m very concerned about the possible corrosion, specifically rust, of all the hardware that holds the bridge together and that attaches the cables,” one participant said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
When cells lacked this tethering protein, or lacked the specific region that attaches it to the skeleton, they could no longer swallow dead cells.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026
But he now attaches a condition to that advice.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
He attaches it to a little flask with breathing medicine and straps a mask on my face.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
Detritus accumulates like a wake behind a songwriter because songwriters are loath to continue to try to promote a piece of material that has any disappointment attached to it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
Unite national officer Oliver Richardson added in a statement that "a number of unions across Europe have the same" agreement and that his union's deal is not "attached to, nor dependent on company performance".
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
In June, she had surgery, which included a hysterectomy and a full bowel shave to try to remove endometriosis tissue which attached her womb to her bowel.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Soldiers tracked his progress through a camera attached to the hexacopter and talked to him via a speaker on the camera.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
Sadly, there was a tragic human toll attached to divers’ new abilities to operate so far beneath the surface.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
He’s just done it more quietly, without attaching the force of his weird personality as a condition.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026
Writing for the majority, Justice Scalia reasoned that attaching the GPS device constituted such a tort and therefore fell within the scope of the Fourth Amendment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
That binding interferes with transcription of the gene, either by disrupting the activity of RNA polymerase, the enzyme that produces RNA, or by preventing transcription factors from attaching to DNA.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
This is the double edge of attaching prices to things that are valuable precisely because they are not transactions.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
Temporary, but attaching myself to the ground underneath me.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
