aggress
English
Etymology
From Latin aggressum, past participle of aggredi (“to attack, assail, approach, go to”), from ad (“to”) + gradi (“to walk, go”), from gradus (“step”); see grade.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈɡɹɛs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɛs
Noun
aggress (uncountable)
- Aggression.
- 1875, anonymous author, Eighteen Hundred and Seventy: a poem:
- his aggress / Was made with such precaution as to quench / Douay's intent and throw him in a mess.
Verb
aggress (third-person singular simple present aggresses, present participle aggressing, simple past and past participle aggressed)
- (transitive) To set upon; to attack.
- (intransitive, construed with on) To commit the first act of hostility or offense against; to begin a quarrel or controversy with someone; to make an attack against someone.
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “aggress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “aggress”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.