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Terror vs Attack - What's the difference?

terror | attack |

As nouns the difference between terror and attack

is that terror is terror while attack is an attempt to cause damage or injury to, or to somehow detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.

As a verb attack is

to apply violent force to someone or something.

terror

English

Alternative forms

* terrour (obsolete or hypercorrect)

Noun

  • (uncountable) Intense dread, fright, or fear.
  • (countable) Specific instance of being intensely terrified.
  • * 1794 , (William Godwin),
  • The terrors with which I was seizedwere extreme.
  • (uncountable) The action or quality of causing dread; terribleness, especially such qualities in narrative fiction.
  • * 1921', (Edith Birkhead), ''The tale of '''terror : a study of the Gothic romance
  • (countable) Something or someone that causes such fear.
  • * 1841 , (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
  • The terrors of the storm
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}

    Derived terms

    * terrorism * terrorist * terrorize, terrorized, terrorizing * reign of terror

    See also

    * alarm * fright * consternation * dread * dismay

    attack

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An attempt to cause damage or injury to, or to somehow detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1913, author=
  • , title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad , chapter=4 citation , passage=“I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I??? Why didn’t I telephone??? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack , and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Mark Tran
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=1, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Denied an education by war , passage=One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks' on schools
  • A time in which one attacks. The offence of a battle.
  • (cricket) Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
  • (volleyball) Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
  • (lacrosse) The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
  • The sudden onset of a disease.
  • An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
  • (music) The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
  • (audio) The amount of time it takes for the volume of an audio signal to go from zero to maximum level (e.g. an audio waveform representing a snare drum hit would feature a very fast attack, whereas that of a wave washing to shore would feature a slow attack).
  • Synonyms

    * (volleyball) hit, spike * See also

    Antonyms

    * (music) decay, release

    Derived terms

    * attack is the best form of defence * pincer attack

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To apply violent force to someone or something.
  • This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened.
  • To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar ).
  • She published an article attacking the recent pay cuts.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012
  • , date=June 3 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992) citation , page= , passage=In its God-like prime, The Simpsons attacked well-worn satirical fodder from unexpected angles, finding fresh laughs in the hoariest of subjects.}}
  • To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
  • * Macaulay
  • On the fourth of March he was attacked by fever.
  • * B. Stewart
  • Hydrofluoric acid attacks the glass.
  • To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
  • We´ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework.
    I attacked the meal with a hearty appetite.
  • (cricket) To aim balls at the batsman’s wicket.
  • (cricket) To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
  • (cricket) To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
  • (soccer) To move forward in an attempt to actively score point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=October 15 , author=Michael Da Silva , title=Wigan 1 - 3 Bolton , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Six successive defeats had left them rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table but, clearly under instructions to attack from the outset, Bolton started far the brighter.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also