- attempt
- {{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}} nounADJECTIVE▪ successful▪ abortive, botched, failed, fruitless, futile, ill-fated, misguided, unsuccessful, vain▪
her vain attempt to save her son's life
▪ conscious, deliberate▪ bold, brave, concerted, determined, serious, valiant▪ blatant▪ feeble, half-hearted, lame, pathetic, weak▪She smiled at my feeble attempt at humour/humor.
▪I made a half-hearted attempt at cleaning my apartment.
▪ clumsy, crude▪ desperate, frantic, last-ditch▪a desperate attempt to find survivors
▪ repeated▪repeated attempts to break through enemy lines
▪ first▪That's not bad for a first attempt.
▪ assassination, coup, escape, rescue, suicide▪Rescue attempts were stopped because of bad weather.
VERB + ATTEMPT▪ make▪She has made no attempt to contact her mother.
▪ succeed in▪He succeeded in his attempt to break the world record.
▪ abandon, fail in, give up▪He abandoned his attempt to reach the summit.
▪ foil, thwart▪Their attempt to break out of prison was foiled.
▪ resist▪The board said it would resist any attempt to take control of the company.
ATTEMPT + VERB▪ succeed▪ failPREPOSITION▪ in an/the attempt▪In an attempt to ward off criticism, the government has made education a priority.
▪ attempt at▪He made a feeble attempt at a smile.
▪ attempt by▪an attempt by workers to prevent job losses
PHRASES▪ an attempt on sb's life (= an attempt to kill sb)▪ at the first, second, etc. attempt (esp. BrE), in the first, second, etc. attempt (AmE)▪{{Roman}}II.{{/Roman}}I passed my test at/in the first attempt.
verb
Collocations dictionary. 2013.
