Attrit
Origin
Back-formation from {{3}}
Full definition of attrit
Verb
- To wear down through attrition, especially mechanical attrition
- ... pebbles of vast size, or blocks of stone, attrited by water to smoothness, conjoined by a cement of mud.
- To engage in attrition; to quit or drop out
- the relatives who had been helping slipped away as I grew older, attriting for various reasons that all amounted to the same reason.
- To be reduced in quantity through attrition
- The interference theory of second language loss holds that forgetting is actually interference between the attriting language and the language replacing it.
- (military) To lose, or to kill troops by attrition due to sustained firepower
- The primary objective is to attrit the units sufficiently so that they cannot close with the units in contact.