Attachment

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Attachment \At*tach"ment\, n. [F. attachment.]
     1. The act attaching, or state of being attached; close
        adherence or affection; fidelity; regard; an? passion of
        affection that binds a person; as, an attachment to a
        friend, or to a party.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. That by which one thing is attached to another;
        connection; as, to cut the attachments of a muscle.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The human mind . . . has exhausted its forces in the
              endeavor to rend the supernatural from its
              attachment to this history.           --I. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Something attached; some adjunct attached to an
        instrument, machine, or other object; as, a sewing machine
        attachment (i. e., a device attached to a sewing machine
        to enable it to do special work, as tucking, etc.).
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Giv. Law)
        (a) A seizure or taking into custody by virtue of a legal
            process.
        (b) The writ or percept commanding such seizure or taking.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The term is applied to a seizure or taking either of
           persons or property. In the serving of process in a
           civil suit, it is most generally applied to the taking
           of property, whether at common law, as a species of
           distress, to compel defendant's appearance, or under
           local statutes, to satisfy the judgment the plaintiff
           may recover in the action. The terms attachment and
           arrest are both applied to the taking or apprehension
           of a defendant to compel an appearance in a civil
           action. Attachments are issued at common law and in
           chancery, against persons for contempt of court. In
           England, attachment is employed in some cases where
           capias is with us, as against a witness who fails to
           appear on summons. In some of the New England States a
           writ of attachment is a species of mesne process upon
           which the property of a defendant may be seized at the
           commencement of a suit and before summons to him, and
           may be held to satisfy the judgment the plaintiff may
           recover. In other States this writ can issue only
           against absconding debtors and those who conceal
           themselves. See {Foreign}, {Garnishment}, {Trustee
           process}. --Bouvier. --Burrill. --Blackstone.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: {Attachment}, {Affection}.
  
     Usage: The leading idea of affection is that of warmth and
            tenderness; the leading idea of attachment is that of
            being bound to some object by strong and lasting ties.
            There is more of sentiment (and sometimes of romance)
            in affection, and more of principle in preserving
            attachment. We speak of the ardor of the one, and the
            fidelity of the other. There is another distinction in
            the use and application of these words. The term
            attachment is applied to a wider range of objects than
            affection. A man may have a strong attachment to his
            country, to his profession, to his principles, and
            even to favorite places; in respect to none of these
            could we use the word affection.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  attachment
       n 1: a feeling of affection for a person or an institution [syn:
            {fond regard}]
       2: a supplementary part or accessory
       3: a writ authorizing the seizure of property that may be
          needed for the payment of a judgment in a judicial
          proceeding
       4: a connection that fastens things together [syn: {bond}]
       5: faithful support for a religion or cause or political party
          [syn: {adherence}, {adhesion}]
       6: the act of attaching or affixing something [syn: {affixation}]
       7: the act of fastening things together [syn: {fastening}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  202 Moby Thesaurus words for "attachment":
     Amor, Christian love, Eros, Platonic love, accession, accessory,
     accompaniment, accounting for, addenda, addendum, additament,
     addition, additive, additory, additum, adherence, adhesion,
     adhesive, adjunct, adjunction, adjuvant, admiration, adoration,
     affection, affinity, affixation, affixing, agape, agglutination,
     allegiance, angary, annex, annexation, annexure, answerability,
     appanage, appendage, appendant, appliance, application,
     appurtenance, appurtenant, ardency, ardor, arrogation, ascription,
     assignation, assignment, attaching, attribution, augment,
     augmentation, binding, blame, bodily love, bona fides, bond,
     bonne foi, brotherly love, caritas, charge, charity, clasping,
     coda, collectivization, commandeering, communalization,
     communization, complement, concomitant, confiscation,
     conjugal love, connection, connection with, constancy,
     continuation, corollary, credit, decoration, derivation from,
     desire, device, devotedness, devotion, distraint, distress,
     eminent domain, etiology, execution, expropriation, extension,
     extra, extrapolation, faith, faithful love, faithfulness, fancy,
     fastener, fastening, fealty, fervor, fidelity, firmness, fixing,
     fixture, flame, fondness, free love, free-lovism, friendliness,
     friendship, gadget, garnishment, girding, good faith, heart,
     hero worship, homage, honor, hooking, idolatry, idolism,
     idolization, impoundment, impressment, imputation, increase,
     increment, joining, junction, juxtaposition, knot, lasciviousness,
     lashing, levy, libido, ligation, like, liking, link, linking, love,
     lovemaking, loyalty, married love, nationalization, offshoot,
     ornament, palaetiology, part, partiality, passion, pendant,
     physical love, piety, placement, popular regard, popularity,
     prefixation, reference to, regard, reinforcement, responsibility,
     right of angary, saddling, sentiment, sequestration, sex,
     sexual love, shine, side effect, side issue, socialization,
     spiritual love, splice, staunchness, steadfastness, sticking,
     suffixation, superaddition, superfetation, superjunction,
     superposition, supplement, supplementation, tailpiece,
     tender feeling, tender passion, tenderness, tie, tieing, troth,
     true blue, truelove, trueness, undergirding, uniting, uxoriousness,
     weakness, worship, yearning, zipping
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ATTACHMENT, crim. law, practice. A writ requiring a sheriff to apprehend a
  particular person, who has been guilty of. a contempt of court, and to bring
  the offender before the court. Tidd's Pr. Index, h.t.;  Grab. Pr. 555.
       2. It may be awarded by the court upon a bare suggestion, though
  generally an oath stating what contempt has been committed is required, or
  on their own knowledge without indictment or information. An attachment may
  be issued against officers of the court for disobedience or contempt of
  their rules and orders, for disobedience of their process, and for
  disturbing them in their lawful proceedings. Bac. Ab. h.t. A. in the nature
  of a civil execution, and it was therefore held it could not be executed on
  Sunday; 1 T. R. 266; Cowper, 394; Willes, R. 292, note (b); yet, in. one
  case, it was decided, that it was so far criminal, that it could not be
  granted in England on the affirmation of a Quaker. Stra. 441. See 5 Halst.
  63; 1 Cowen, 121, note; Bac. Ab. h.t.
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ATTACHMENT, remedies. A writ issued by a court of competent jurisdiction,
  commanding the sheriff or other proper officer to seize any property;
  credit, or right, belonging to the defendant, in whatever hands the same may
  be found, to satisfy the demand which the plaintiff has against him.
       2. This writ always issues before judgment, and is intended to compel
  an appearance in this respect it differs from an execution. In some of the
  states this process can be issued only against absconding debtors, or those
  who conceal themselves; in others it is issued in the first instance, so
  that the property attached may respond to the exigency of the writ, and
  satisfy the judgment.
       3. There are two kinds of attachment in Pennsylvania, the foreign
  attachment, and the domestic attachment. l. The foreign attachment is a mode
  of proceeding by a creditor against the property of his debtor, when the
  debtor is out of the jurisdiction of the state, and is not an inhabitant of
  the same. The object of this process is in the first instance to compel an
  appearance by the debtor, although his property may even eventually be made
  liable to the amount of the plaintiff Is claim. It will be proper to
  consider, 1. by whom it be issued; 2. against what property 3. mode of
  proceeding. 1. The plaintiff must be a creditor of the defendant; the claim
  of the plaintiff need not, however, be technically a debt, but it may be
  such on which an action of assumpsit would lie but an attachment will not
  lie for a demand which arises ex delicto; or when special bail would not be
  regularly required. Serg. on Att. 51. 2. The writ of attachment may be
  issued against the real and personal estate of any person not residing
  within the commonwealth, and not being within the county in which such writ
  may issue, at the time. of the issuing thereof. And proceedings may be had
  against persons convicted of crime, and sentenced to imprisonment. 3. The
  writ of attachment is in general terms, not specifying in the body of it the
  name of the garnishee, or the property to be attached, but commanding the
  officer to attach the defendant, by all and singular his goods and chattels,
  in whose hands or possession soever the same may be found in his bailiwick,
  so that he be and appear before the court at a certain time to answer, &c.
  The foreign attachment is issued solely for the benefit of the plaintiff.
       4.-2. The domestic attachment is issued by the court of common pleas
  of the county in which any debtor, being an inhabitant of the commonwealth,
  may reside; if such debtor shall have absconded from the place of his usual
  abode within the same, or shall have remained absent from the commonwealth,
  or shall have confined himself to his own house, or concealed himself
  elsewhere, with a design, in either case, to defraud his creditors. It is
  issued on an oath or affirmation, previously made by a creditor of such
  person, or by some one on his behalf, of the truth of his debt, and of the
  facts upon which the attachment may be founded. Any other creditor of such
  person, upon affidavit of his debt as aforesaid, may suggest his name upon
  the record, and thereupon such creditor may proceed to prosecute his said
  writ, if the person suing the same shall refuse or neglect to proceed
  thereon, or if he fail to establish his right to prosecute the same, as a
  creditor of the defendant. The property attached is vested in trustees to be
  appointed by the court, who are, after  giving six months public notice of
  their appointment, to distribute the assets attached among the creditors
  under certain regulations prescribed by the act of assembly. Perishable
  goods way be sold under an order of the court, both under a foreign and
  domestic attachment. Vide Serg. on Attachments Whart. Dig. title Attachment.
       5. By the code of practice of Louisiana, an attachment in the hands of
  third person is declared to be a mandate which a creditor obtains from a
  competent officer, commanding the seizure of any property, credit or right,
  belonging to his debtor, in whatever hands they may be found, to satisfy the
  demand which he intends to bring against him. A creditor may obtain such
  attachment of the property of his debtor, in the following cases. 1. When
  such debtor is about permanently leaving the state, without there being a
  possibility, in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, of obtaining or
  executing judgment against him previous to, his departure; or when such
  debtor has already left the state never again to return. 2. When such debtor
  resides out of the state. 3. When he conceals himself to avoid being cited
  or forced to answer to the suit intended to be brought against him. Articles
  239, 240.
       6. By the local laws of some of the New England states, and
  particularly of the states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine,
  personal property and real estate may be attached upon mesne process to
  respond the exigency of the writ, and satisfy the judgment. In such cases it
  is the common practice for the officer to bail the goods attached, to some
  person, who is usually a friend of the debtor, upon an express or implied
  agreement on his part, to have them forthcoming on demand, or in time to
  respond the judgment, when the execution thereon shall be issued. Story on
  Bailm. Sec. 124. As to the rights and duties of the officer or bailor in
  such cases, and as to the rights and duties of the bailee, who is commonly
  called the receiptor, see 2 Mass. 514; 9 Mass. 112 11 Mass. 211; 6 Johns. R.
  195 9 Mass. 104, 265; 10 Mass. 125 15 Mass. 310; 1 Pick. R. 232, 389. See
  Metc. & Perk. Dig. tit. Absent and Absconding Debtors.