Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Worn by rubbing or friction. Milton.
- In theology, imperfectly contrite or repentant. See
attrition , 3.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Rubbed; worn by friction.
- adjective (Theol.) Repentant from fear of punishment; having attrition of grief for sin; -- opposed to
contrite .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Alternative form of
attrit . - adjective
regretful of one's wrongdoing merely due to fear of punishment (comparecontrite )
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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The other side of the issue is more direct: defending against hit-and-run (i) radically increases the economic cost of fielding an army, (ii) radically reduces military effectiveness, and (iii) if not done effectively, will gradually attrite the army to the point of lacking military effectiveness.
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The way we are designed to fight and are fighting is to use intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to identify enemy locations, and then use our air and long shooters, ATACMS, MLRS and artillery to attrite enemy forces, so that when we finally close in ground combat, in fact, it's not an even fight.
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The first two clips highlight our efforts to attrite Taliban 5th Corps in the north near Mazar-i-Sharif.
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Covering force units attrite the enemy, deceive him as to the location of the MBA, slow his speed of advance, cause him to mass, and may cause him to divulge his intentions.
FM 90-4 Chapter 4 United States Army 1987
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Maintaining a call center is expensive, and the company will undertake whatever means it can in order to force you onto an automated system or, barring that, attrite you into submission.
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Thirdly, the adversaries say that sin is remitted; because an attrite or contrite person elicits an act of love to God [if we undertake from reason to love God], and by this act merits to receive the remission of sins.
Apology of the Augsburg Confession Philipp Melanchthon 1528
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Different merchant size attrition really makes a huge difference in this and there's lot of empirical evidence that the smaller merchants attrite much more quickly then the larger ones and that really messes it up.
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Different merchant size attrition really makes a huge difference in this and there's lot of empirical evidence that the smaller merchants attrite much more quickly then the larger ones and that really messes it up.
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The more enemy we attrite .. the more enemy we have.
whoar.co.nz 2009
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We had a very specific back to back tariff with BT and the program management that we put in place for that business to attrite off of the network was almost mapping that one for one.
hernesheir commented on the word attrite
(adj): worn by rubbing, or friction: (Roman Catholic Church), having attrition, or sorrow, less than contrition, for sin.
January 18, 2009
mollusque commented on the word attrite
Psst, hernesheir, it's an adjective.
January 18, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word attrite
This word is recently being used as a verb, back-formed from attrition - see Wordnik examples.
July 3, 2010
qms commented on the word attrite
When buzzards descend and alight
Then plutocrats take an affright
And fiercely abjure
All Satan’s allure.
At Hell’s looming gate they’re attrite.
June 2, 2018