Attribute

5 definitions found

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

  Attribute \At"tri*bute\, n. [L. attributum.]
     1. 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              But mercy is above this sceptered away; . . .
              It is an attribute to God himself.    --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Reputation. [Poetic]                        --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Paint. & Sculp.) A conventional symbol of office,
        character, or identity, added to any particular figure;
        as, a club is the attribute of Hercules.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Gram.) Quality, etc., denoted by an attributive; an
        attributive adjunct or adjective.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  Attribute \At*trib"ute\ ([a^]t"tr[i^]*b[=u]t), v. t. [imp. & p.
     p. {Attributed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Attributing}.] [L.
     attributus, p. p. of attribuere; ad + tribuere to bestow. See
     {Tribute}.]
     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).
     [1913 Webster]
  
           We attribute nothing to God that hath any repugnancy or
           contradiction in it.                     --Abp.
                                                    Tillotson.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true
           and exact performer.                     --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: See {Ascribe}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  attribute
       n 1: a construct whereby objects or individuals can be
            distinguished; "self-confidence is not an endearing
            property" [syn: {property}, {dimension}]
       2: an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
       v 1: attribute or credit to; "We attributed this quotation to
            Shakespeare"; "People impute great cleverness to cats"
            [syn: {impute}, {ascribe}, {assign}]
       2: decide as to where something belongs in a scheme; "The
          biologist assigned the mushroom to the proper class" [syn:
           {assign}]

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

  139 Moby Thesaurus words for "attribute":
     IC analysis, account for, accredit, accredit with, accrete to,
     acknowledge, affection, apply, apply to, appositive, aroma,
     ascribe, ascribe to, assign, assign to, attach, attach to,
     attribute to, attributive, badge, blame, blame for, blame on,
     brand, bring home to, cachet, calendar, cast, character,
     characteristic, charge, charge on, charge to, chronologize,
     complement, confess, configuration, connect with,
     construction modifier, credit, credit with, cut, cutting, date,
     deep structure, differentia, differential, direct object,
     distinctive feature, earmark, emblem, fasten upon, father upon,
     feature, figure, filler, fix on, fix upon, flavor,
     form-function unit, function, give, gust, hallmark, hang on,
     idiocrasy, idiosyncrasy, immediate constituent analysis, impress,
     impression, impute, impute to, index, indirect object,
     individualism, keynote, lay, lay to, levels, lineaments, mannerism,
     mark, marking, modifier, mold, nature, object, odor, particularity,
     peculiarity, phrase structure, pin on, pinpoint, place, place upon,
     point to, predicate, property, put, qualifier, quality, quirk,
     ranks, refer, refer to, saddle on, saddle with, savor, seal,
     set down to, settle upon, shallow structure, shape, singularity,
     slot, slot and filler, smack, specialty, stamp, strata, structure,
     subject, surface structure, syntactic analysis,
     syntactic structure, syntactics, syntax, tagmeme, taint, tang,
     taste, token, trace to, trait, trick, underlying structure, virtue,
     word arrangement, word order
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  attribute
       
           A named value or relationship that exists for some or
          all {instances} of some {entity} and is directly associated
          with that instance.
       
          Examples include the {href} attribute of an {HTML} {anchor}
          element, the columns of a database table considered as
          attributes of each row, and the {members} ({properties} and
          {methods} of an {object} in {OOP}.  This contrasts with the
          contents of some kind of container (e.g. an array), which are
          typically not named.  The contents of an {associative array},
          though they might be considered to be named by their key
          values, are not normally thought of as attributes.
       
          (2001-02-04)