Also 4–6 -icioun, -ycyon, etc. [ad. L. attrītiōn-em, n. of action f. attrīt-: see ATTRITE and -ION. The theological sense 4 was earliest in Eng.]
1. The action or process of rubbing one thing against another; mutual friction.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 490. They make shift for to rub and grate one wood against another, and by this attrition there fly out sparkes.
1776. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 230. Some … think that heat is produced in the lungs by the attrition of the blood in passing through them.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, I. 70. When the mill is too slowly fed … the stones, by their attrition, are apt to strike fire.
fig. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 34. The dangerous attritions of stubborn and wrangling spirits.
1782. V. Knox, Ess. (1819), II. lxviii. 55. Nor have yet become callous by attrition with the world.
2. The action or process of rubbing away, wearing or grinding down, by friction.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 466. Polished by that rubbing and attrition which it meets withall, in the course and stream of the water.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos., I. iv. § 6. The Attrition or Breaking of the Food.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 250. Pebbles and sand … decrease in size by attrition.
fig. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Morals (1756), 58. The compage of all physical truths is not … always so closely maintained, as not to suffer attrition.
1858. Max Müller, Chips (1880), II. xxvii. 354. Contact with English society exercises a constant attrition on the system of castes.
3. Surg. a. Rubbing away of the skin or tissue; excoriation, abrasion. b. Comminuted fracture. (With quot. 1585 cf. OF. attrice hæmorrhoid.)
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., VI. 184. A greate medicine in all wrestyngs and attritions of lacertes.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, M ij. Hemorroydes and attrycions in the fundament.
1634. T. Johnson, trans. Parey’s Chirurg., XV. i. (1678), 327. They call it Attrition, when the bone is broken into many small fragments.
1853. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Attrition … (Surg.) violent crushing of a part.
1875. H. Wood, Therap. (1879), 582. Whenever surfaces become sore by attrition, or chafe.
4. Theol. An imperfect sorrow for sin, as if a bruising which does not amount to utter crushing (contrition); ‘horror of sin through fear of punishment, without any loving sense, or taste of God’s mercy’ (Hooker), while contrition has its motive in the love of God. (A sense invented by scholastic theologians in 12th c.; the earliest in Eng.)
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 557. Thou … wailist for thi synne and thyn offence, And hast for ferde caught attrition.
1506. Ord. Crysten Men, IV. iii. 171. Attrycyon … is a maner of contrycyon unparfyte.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 63. Three stages in the passage from vice to virtue: attrition, contrition, and repentance. The first is a sorrow for the mischiefs men have brought upon their own heads by their ill doings.
1875. H. E. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, i. 16. Sacramental grace to raise our sorrow from attrition to contrition.
