attain
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to arrive at or succeed in reaching or obtaining something (usually followed by to orunto ).
to attain to knowledge.
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to reach in the course of development or growth.
These trees attain to remarkable height.
verb
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(tr) to achieve or accomplish (a task, goal, aim, etc)
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(tr) to reach or arrive at in space or time
to attain old age
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to arrive (at) with effort or exertion
to attain to glory
Related Words
See gain 1.
Other Word Forms
- attainability noun
- attainable adjective
- attainer noun
- reattain verb (used with object)
- unattaining adjective
Etymology
Origin of attain
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English atei(g)nen, from Anglo-French, Old French ateign- (stem of ateindre ), from unattested Vulgar Latin attangere (for Latin attingere ), equivalent to Latin at- at- + tangere “to touch”
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.
Pereira was arrested in his room at an asylum hotel in Uxbridge, west London, and told officers about his "long and tireless battle with the Home Office to try to attain asylum", said the prosecutor.
From BBC
None but a child taken at an early age would have ever attained the proficiency and wrought such widespread evil as I have.
From Literature
Few of King’s staff supported the effort, worrying that the strike — and the planned Poor People’s Campaign in Washington — distracted from the main goal of attaining voting and political rights for Black Americans.
From Los Angeles Times
Entitled “Superstar CEOs,” the researchers focused on CEOs who attain “superstar” status, as measured by, among other criteria, their company’s ranking on “most admired” lists.
From MarketWatch
In November 1990, he was elected Poland’s president, the first man to attain that office by democratic means in more than seven decades, and the first electrician ever to do so.
Definitions 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.
