Also 4 atache, 4–7 attache. Sc. 6 atteche, atteiche. [a. OF. atachie-r (mod. attacher), cogn. with It. attaccare, Sp. atacar; f. à to, at + a radical which is found also in détacher DETACH, and is connected by Diez and Littré with the Genevese tache, Sp., Pg. tacha, a round-headed nail, a TACK, q.v. Thus lit. ‘to tack to.’ See Diez, Littré, Skeat.]
The development of signification seems to have been thus: 1. The regular OF. sense was ‘to fasten,’ as in mod.Eng., where however this sense is of quite recent adoption from mod.F. 2. The earlier Eng. sense of ‘arrest, seize,’ arose in AF. and Eng., as an elliptical expression for ‘attach by some tie to the control or jurisdiction of a court,’ i.e., so that it shall have a hold on the party. A man might thus be attaché or ‘nailed,’ par le cors by his body, par ses avers et par ses chateus by his goods and chattels, par pleges by sureties for his appearance (Britton). In the first two cases the attachment consisted in arrest and detention. 3. The It. equivalent is attaccare: in the 16th c. the It. attaccare battaglia to join battle, attaccarsi a to fasten (oneself) upon, ‘attack,’ was first imitated with F. attacher, and then adapted in Fr. as attaquer; whence Eng. ATTACK, and occasional 17th c. use of attach (see 4 infra).
I. To arrest, lay hold of, seize, ‘nail’; indict.
1. Law. To secure for legal jurisdiction and disposal, to place or take under the control of a court; to arrest or seize by authority of a writ of attachment: a. a person. (See quot. 1691.)
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 212. Eke wepte and wrong hire hondes whon heo was a-tachet.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumbr., 4517. ‘Ribaux,’ saide he, ‘ich ȝow attache, Aȝeld ȝow anon to me.’
1531–2. Act 23 Hen. VIII., ii. Euery shiriffe … shall attache the saide offenders.
1581. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), 226 (Jam.). Power to atteiche and arreist the personis transgressouris.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. i. 6. Therefore make present satisfaction, Or Ile attach you by this Officer.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 108. Often they attach poore innocents, when they cannot apprehend the guiltie.
1691. Blount, Law Dict., s.v. Attach, He, who Arrests, carries the party Arrested to another higher person to be disposed of forthwith; he that attacheth, keeps the party attached, and presents him in Court at the day assigned in the Attachment.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxxi. The means … of attaching this suspicious and formidable delinquent.
Const. for, of.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 415. Guy, his sone, was attachyd for the same and sent to pryson.
1649. Milton, Eikon., 83. The Peers gave … thir consent … to attaching the Bishops of High Treason.
1715. Burnet, Hist. Ref. He was attached of heresy.
1823. Scott, Peveril, v. I attach thee of the crime of which thou hast but now made thy boast.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, II. xvii. 183. The Earl Marshal attached Gloucester for high treason.
b. property, goods.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 158. Þe godes attached waren to þe kyng of Cipres Isaac.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 28. If any of these sayde officers fynde any maner of catell … they maye attache theym and cease theym as streyes.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. i. 95. France … hath attach’d Our Merchants goods at Burdeux.
1853. Wharton, Pa. Digest, 168. § 66. Choses in action of the wife cannot be attached for the husband’s debt.
1882. C. Sweet, Dict. Law Terms, s.v. Attachment, To attach property is to seize it, or place it under the control of a Court.
† 2. To indict before a tribunal, accuse, charge.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 34. Be thou attached with thift or with treason … Thy cheer changes.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 266. Welcum celestiall myrrour and aspy, Attechyng all that hantis sluggardy!
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), K k viij. They wolde … elles attache vs for fooles.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., 36. They shall not easily be attached of any notable absurditie.
1653. M. Carter, Hon. Rediv. (1660), 81. In which Parliament, the King attaches Earl Godwin, for that he had kil’d his Brother.
† 3. transf. To seize, lay hold of. a. Said fig. of death, sickness, love, passion, misfortune. Obs.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), A iv. If they had bene … attached with envy and covaytise.
1550. Bale, Image Both Ch., III. xix. § 13. Hastely shall death attache them.
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. iii. 5. I am my selfe attach’d with wearinesse.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 173. A sore sickness attached or attacked him.
† b. lit. To seize with hands, claws or talons. Obs.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 375. Euery man attach the hand Of his faire Mistresse.
1611. Guillim, Heraldrie, III. xv. 137. The Lion … lesse able to attach and rend his Prey.
1649. Selden, Laws of Eng., I. lxvi. (1739), 144. The strength of the Canon-Law growing to its full pitch, after a long chase attached the prey.
II. † 4. To attack. Obs. (So in 16th c. F. from It.)
1627. Lisander & Cal., III. 41. The Archduke threatned to attach Reyne Berk with a siege.
1666. Killigrew, Urbin, v. The walls are every where attach’d.
III. trans. To tack on, fasten, affix, connect.
5. To tack on; to fasten or join (a thing to another, or to a spot), by tacking, hooking on, tying, stitching, sticking, etc.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., viii. (1803), 117. It [the shoulder-blade is bedded in the flesh; attached only to the muscles.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xix. The hundred points or latchets which were the means of attaching the doublet to the hose.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 201. A huge stone, to which the cable … was attached.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 77. By attaching to the apparatus a tube which dips beneath water.
1879. G. Fennell, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 76/2. The young of the oyster … attach themselves immediately to the first clean, hard substance they meet with.
† b. To fasten (the eyes), keep fixed on an object.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, C v a. I did not attach my Eyes onely on the generallity of Objects, but did exactly consider some particulars worthy of note.
6. To connect or join on functionally (e.g., a person to a company, expedition, etc.) Often refl.
a. 1729. J. Rogers, 19 Serm., xix. (1735), 401 (J.). The Great and the Rich depend on the Assistances of those whom their Power or their Wealth attaches to them.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 16. God … By various ties attaches man to man.
1808. Scott, Mem., in Lockhart, i. (1842), 16/2. That I should seriously consider to which department of the law I was to attach myself.
1873. Tristram, Moab, i. 8. A Bedouin who had attached himself to us.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 7. (1882), 95. The second attached himself to the Dukes of France.
7. To join in sympathy or affection to a person, place, etc. Often in pass. To be attached to.
1765. Goldsm., Ess., 14 (L.). To form the manners and attach the mind to virtue.
1816. Miss Austen, Emma, III. x. 341. When I was very much disposed to be attached to him.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, ix. 109. How she kept her father’s house in order … how she attached her little brothers to her.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, IX. viii. I resolved again to attach myself to some living heart.
b. esp. To cause to adhere to oneself in sympathy or affection; to win or attract the attachment of.
1811. Miss Austen, Sense & Sens., III. i. 224. So totally unamiable, so absolutely incapable of attaching a sensible man. Ibid. (1814), Lady Susan, xiv. (1879), 230. His account of her attaching Miss Mainwaring’s lover.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages Eng., xxvi. (L.). Enemies whom no defeat could intimidate, and no peace attach.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., III. IX. iv. 102. I return you all … except Charles Douze which attaches me infinitely.
8. To fix (anything immaterial) to; to affix a name, description, property, or adjunct of any kind.
1812. Examiner, 30 Nov., 768/1. A most diabolical attempt to attach the guilt of murder to two men innocent of the crime.
1843. Mill, Logic, I. vi. § 2. Certain properties to which mankind have chosen to attach that name.
1879. B. Taylor, Stud. Germ. Lit., 111. To this treasure a curse is attached.
1883. E. Payne, in Law Times, 27 Oct., 432/2. The magistrates licence … is attached to a particular house.
1884. Sir C. Bowen, in Law Times Rep., 12 April, 197/1. The liability which English law attaches to contracts.
b. refl. To fasten itself on; to adhere, cleave, stick to.
1861. Mill, Utilit., 41. No reason why all these motives … should not attach themselves to the utilitarian morality, as completely … as to any other.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., v. 51. Legends which attached themselves to the name of Charles the Emperor.
9. To add or bestow as an attribute, to attribute; to view as pertaining or appropriate to.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. x. (1871), 50. Little credibility … should be attached to such legends.
1855. Prescott, Philip II., I. viii. 134. The importance they attached to their own services.
1870. Jevons, Elem. Logic, xxxiii. 292. Different people attach different meanings to the words.
1879. Lubbock, Addr. Pol. & Educ., iii. 49. Only thirteen attach any weight at all to scientific subjects in the examinations.
IV. intr. (for refl.) To adhere, stick, cling, remain adherent.
10. To fix or fasten itself upon as an obligation or liability; to fall, or come upon, and adhere to.
1780. Burke, Œcon. Reform., Wks. III. 338. It is … just … that the loss should attach upon the delinquency.
1852. McCulloch, Taxation, II. vi. 284. The stamp duties have a tendency to facilitate the transactions on which they attach.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, I. 491. Blame attaches upon Lord Aberdeen’s Cabinet for yielding.
11. To adhere to, as an appertaining quality or circumstance; to be incident to (formerly on).
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), I. 233. For that the right of Chieftainship attached to the blood of primogeniture, and, therefore, was incapable of being transferred.
1812. Southey, Lett. (1856), II. 312. Without any farther suspicion … than attaches to all works written in an age of physical credulity.
1818. Sir G. Dallas in Parr’s Wks. (1828), VII. 191. The just veneration that attaches on your opinions.
1859. Ecce Homo, iii. 22. All the advantages which attach to hereditary monarchy.
12. To take legal effect, come into legal operation in connection with anything.
1818. Colebrooke, Obligations, I. 93. If the whole obligation do not attach, the whole of it fails.
1829. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLI. 385. Wherever they should make their settlement, there the laws of England attached.
1844. Williams, Real Prop. Law (1877), 235. The wife’s right to dower accordingly attached.
1848. Arnould, Mar. Insur. (1866), I. I. i. 16. When the liability of the Underwriter commences, the technical mode of expressing this is by saying that ‘the policy attaches.’
1876. Digby, Real Prop., iii. § 11. 123. To give the tenure the character of tenure by knight-service, and consequently to cause the incidents of wardship and marriage to attach.
