Attribute
[ə'trɪbjuːt] or [ə'trɪbjut]
Definition
(noun.) an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity.
Edited by Kelsey--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To ascribe; to consider (something) as due or appropriate (to); to refer, as an effect to a cause; to impute; to assign; to consider as belonging (to).
(n.) That which is attributed; a quality which is considered as belonging to, or inherent in, a person or thing; an essential or necessary property or characteristic.
(n.) Reputation.
(n.) A conventional symbol of office, character, or identity, added to any particular figure; as, a club is the attribute of Hercules.
(n.) Quality, etc., denoted by an attributive; an attributive adjunct or adjective.
Checker: Yale
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Ascribe, assign, refer, impute, consider as due.
n. Quality, property, characteristic, peculiarity.
Edited by Carmella
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Property, quality, characteristic, attainment, sign, mark, indication,manifestation
ANT:correlative, viz, Essence, nature, substance, etc, or, spuriously, affectation,misnomer, semblance, assumption, mask, veil
SYN:Refer, assign, associate, apply, ascribe, charge, impute, connect
ANT:Divorce, disconnect, dissociate, dissever
Typed by Judy
Definition
v.t. to ascribe assign or consider as belonging.—adj. Attrib′utable.—ns. At′tribute that which is attributed: that which is inherent in or inseparable from anything: that which can be predicated of anything: a quality or property; Attribū′tion act of attributing: that which is attributed: commendation.—adj. Attrib′utive expressing an attribute.—n. a word denoting an attribute.
Typist: Rosanna
Examples
- A thorough, determined dislike of me--a dislike which I cannot but attribute in some measure to jealousy. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Original genius was peculiarly his attribute. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- A very trifle affects me now; so do not be too vain, nor attribute to sentiment what is due to the scarlet fever. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Was not knowing, the activity of reason, the noblest attribute of man? John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Why should you attribute any importance to so grotesque an object? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- We know that all human actions are imperfect; but we do not therefore attribute them to the worse rather than to the better motive or principle. Plato. The Republic.
- To what do you attribute it? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- No doubt he attributed it for the time to the presumption of a graduate of West Point over a volunteer pure and simple. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- The writings that have been attributed to Geber show the advances that chemistry made through t he experiments of the Arabs. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United Status will have to be attributed to slavery. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- The pickerel doubtless attributed to the roach all this shaking, the rebuff which he had received. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- It would be very unkind of you to suppose that I ever attributed any meanness to you, she began. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Medicated pads are quite popular with many who have tried them, and a multitude of remarkable cures are attributed to their use. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- The Kimberlite of the Jagersfontein mine is free from pyrites, and to that is attributed the remarkable brilliancy and purity of color for which the diamonds of this mine are celebrated. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The new legs last twice as long as the others used to do, and he attributes this solely to his temperate habits (triumphant cheers). Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- And it is now well known that he attributes this coincidence to descent with modification. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- As an incontrovertible proof that those baleful attributes were all there, Mrs Wilfer shuddered on the spot. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Were the pride of ancestry, the patrician spirit, the gentle courtesies and refined pursuits, splendid attributes of rank, to be erased among us? Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- See here, sir, at present I am worshipping a creature of my own creation, with the face of that picture, but with the attributes of fancy. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- When one sees a perfect woman, one never thinks of her attributes--one is conscious of her presence. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- She thought she was prospering finely, but unconsciously she was beginning to desecrate some of the womanliest attributes of a woman's character. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- His errors are readily comprehensible, as, for example, in attributing spontaneous generation to eels, the habits and mode of reproduction of which only recent studies have made fully known. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Mrs. Bulstrode said no more, attributing some dissatisfaction which she felt to her own want of spirituality. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- We incline to account for it by attributing congenital stupidity to our forerunners and by assuming superior native intelligence on our own part. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- My dear child, don't add to it still more--at least to your conception of it--by attributing to her all sorts of susceptibilities of your own. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Was I right in attributing this sudden change of place to some threatened annoyance on the part of Count Fosco? Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- The idea of attributing great successes to genius has always been repudiated by Edison, as evidenced by his historic remark that Genius is 1 per cent. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Lydgate was too hasty in attributing insensibility to her; after her own fashion, she was sensitive enough, and took lasting impressions. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Checker: Wade