attack
verb (used with object)
to set upon in a forceful, violent, hostile, or aggressive way, with or without a weapon; begin fighting with.
was attacking
-
past progressiveof attack.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Oil prices rose after the United Arab Emirates said Iran was attacking it with missiles and Iran claimed a U.S. warship attack.
From Barron's ● May 4, 2026
“It will get a lot easier to attack random pieces of infrastructure that no one was attacking before,” said Thomas Ptacek, a security researcher who is a principal at the cloud computing company Fly.io.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
"I was attacking the golf course versus playing defensive," said the American, who has twice finished runner-up at the PGA Tour's flagship tournament.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
“We did a nice job there early in the game kind of getting the lead,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said, “and then our defense just went crazy and was attacking the quarterback.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 14, 2025
If whoever was out there attacking him had any brains he would probe this position first and find out what he was attacking.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
