ATTRACT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does attract mean? 

• ATTRACT (verb)
  The verb ATTRACT has 3 senses:

1. direct toward itself or oneself by means of some psychological power or physical attributes

2. be attractive to

3. exert a force on (a body) causing it to approach or prevent it from moving away

  Familiarity information: ATTRACT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ATTRACT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they attract    ... he / she / it attracts   
Past simple: attracted   
Past participle: attracted   
-ing form: attracting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Direct toward itself or oneself by means of some psychological power or physical attributes

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

attract; draw; draw in; pull; pull in

Context example:

The store owner was happy that the ad drew in many new customers

Hypernyms (to "attract" is one way to...):

draw; pull (cause to move by pulling)

Verb group:

draw in; retract (pull inward or towards a center)

curl; curl up; draw in (shape one's body into a curl)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "attract"):

tug (pull hard)

arrest; catch; get (attract and fix)

draw in; retract (pull inward or towards a center)

bring (attract the attention of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Antonym:

repel (cause to move back by force or influence)

Derivation:

attraction (the quality of arousing interest; being attractive or something that attracts)

attraction (a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts)

attraction (an entertainment that is offered to the public)

attraction (an entertainer who attracts large audiences)

attractive (having power to arouse interest)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be attractive to

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

appeal; attract

Context example:

The beautiful garden attracted many people

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "attract"):

becharm; beguile; bewitch; captivate; capture; catch; charm; enamor; enamour; enchant; entrance; fascinate; trance (attract; cause to be enamored)

beckon (appear inviting)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Antonym:

repel (be repellent to; cause aversion in)

Derivation:

attraction (the quality of arousing interest; being attractive or something that attracts)

attraction (a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts)

attraction (an entertainment that is offered to the public)

attractive (pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm)

attractor (a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Exert a force on (a body) causing it to approach or prevent it from moving away

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

the gravitational pull of a planet attracts other bodies

Hypernyms (to "attract" is one way to...):

pull (apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

attractable (capable of being magnetized or attracted by a magnet)

attraction (the force by which one object attracts another)

attractive (having the properties of a magnet; the ability to draw or pull)

 Context examples 

Conversely, cyclopentanone, which is minty-smelling and is approved as a flavor and fragrance agent, attracted mosquitoes to a baited trap as effectively as carbon dioxide.

(How mosquitoes detect people, NIH)

The researchers treated watermelon rind with xanthate salts — which attract and bind arsenic — to produce a filter capable of removing 95 per cent of arsenic from water samples taken from around Pakistan.

(Watermelon rind a cheap filter for arsenic in groundwater, SciDev.Net)

Farmers are reducing the environmental impacts of pesticide use by attracting birds of prey to their lands.

(American kestrels, most common predatory birds in U.S., can reduce need for pesticide use, National Science Foundation)

The resins contained in microplastics are able to attract pollutants, especially poisonous organic compounds.

(Microplastic pollution adds to oceans’ problems, scidev.net)

In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were attracted and descended on it in hosts.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A true red spinach like USDA Red will bring excitement to the spinach market and could help attract people back to eating spinach.

(World's First True Red Spinach Variety Released, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

By measuring the flowers with an infrared camera, they found that the east-facing sunflowers heated up more quickly in the morning — and also attracted five times as many pollinating insects.

(Sunflowers move from east to west, and back, by the clock, NSF)

Instead, the larvae become attracted to sounds produced by the wrong sort of habitats or to artificial ‘white noise’.

(Fish larvae lose their way to safety in acidified oceans, SciDev.Net)

Tissues that did not express SPINK7 also produced high levels of chemical messengers called cytokines that attract eosinophils and produce the same type of inflammation seen in allergic diseases.

(Eosinophilic esophagitis may be due to missing protein, National Institutes of Health)

The star's surface gravitational pull is about eleven times stronger than the Sun's — 300 times the strength by which the Earth attracts matter.

(Astronomers discover smallest known star, Wikinews)