Attempt
At`tempt´
| v. t. | 1. | To make trial or experiment of; to try; to endeavor to do or perform (some action); to assay; as, to attempt to sing; to attempt a bold flight. |
| 2. | To try to move, by entreaty, by afflictions, or by temptations; to tempt. |
| 3. | To try to win, subdue, or overcome; as, one who attempts the virtue of a woman. |
| 4. | To attack; to make an effort or attack upon; to try to take by force; as, to attempt the enemy's camp. |
| v. i. | 1. | To make an attempt; - with upon. |
| n. | 1. | A essay, trial, or endeavor; an undertaking; an attack, or an effort to gain a point; esp. an unsuccessful, as contrasted with a successful, effort. |
ATTEMPT, criminal law. An attempt to commit a crime, is an endeavor to
accomplish it, carried beyond mere preparation, but falling short of
execution of the ultimate design, in any part of it.
2. Between preparations and attempts to commit a crime, the distinction
is in many cases, very indeterminate. A man who buys poison for the purpose
of committing a murder, and mixes it in the food intended for his victim,
and places it on a table where he may take it, will or will not be guilty of
an attempt to poison, from the simple circumstance of his taking back the
poisoned food before or after the victim has had an opportunity to take it;
for if immediately on putting it down, he should take it up, and, awakened
to a just consideration of the enormity of the crime, destroy it, this would
amount only to preparations and certainly if before he placed it on the
table, or before he mixed the poison with the food, he had repented of his
intention there would have been no attempt to commit a crime; the law gives
this as a locus penitentiae. An attempt to commit a crime is a misdemeanor;
and an attempt to commit a misdemeanor, is itself a misdemeanor. 1 Russ. on
Cr. 44; 2 East, R. 8; 3 Pick. R. 26; 3 Benth. Ev. 69; 6 C. & P. 368.
accept,
affair,
aim to,
approach,
assault,
assay,
assume,
attack,
attempt to,
begin,
beginning,
bid,
buckle to,
business,
care,
chance,
commence,
commencement,
commitment,
contract,
crack,
dare,
dare to,
deal,
effort,
embark in,
embark upon,
engage,
engage in,
engagement,
enter on,
enter upon,
enterprise,
fall into,
fall to,
fling,
gambit,
get under way,
go,
go about,
go at,
go in for,
go into,
go upon,
hassle,
have at,
hazard,
inaugurate,
initiate,
initiation,
launch forth,
launch into,
lay about,
lick,
lift a finger,
make an attempt,
make an effort,
make bold,
make free,
move,
move into,
obligation,
offer,
operation,
pains,
pitch into,
plan,
plunge into,
presume,
pretend,
pretend to,
proceed to,
program,
project,
proposition,
seek,
seek to,
set about,
set at,
set forward,
set going,
set to,
shot,
shy,
stab,
start,
step,
strive,
strive to,
striving,
stroke,
strong bid,
struggle,
study to,
tackle,
take on,
take the liberty,
take up,
task,
tentative,
trial and error,
trouble,
try and,
try to,
turn to,
undertake,
venture,
venture on,
venture to,
venture upon,
whack,
work
attempt - earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something; "made an effort to cover all the reading material"; "wished him luck in his endeavor"; "she gave it a good try"