attend

Verb

attend (third-person singular simple present attends, present participle attending, simple past and past participle attended)

1. (transitive) To care for (someone requiring attention); specifically, of a doctor, nurse, etc.: to provide professional care to (someone).
   • The fift [beadsman] had charge ſick perſons to attend, / And comfort thoſe, in point of death vvhich lay; […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 41, page 146
   • VVe had at this Time a great many frightful Stories told us of Nurſes and VVatchmen, vvho looked after the dying People, that is to ſay, hir'd Nurſes, vvho attended infected People, uſing them barbarouſly, ſtarving them, ſmothering them, or by other vvicked Means, haſtening their End, that is to...1722 March, H[enry] F[oe] [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], A Journal of the Plague Year: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] Nutt […]; J. Roberts […]; A. Dodd […]; and J. Graves […], →OCLC, page 98
2. (transitive) To wait on (someone or their instructions) as an attendant, servant, etc.; also (specifically of a gentleman-in-waiting or lady-in-waiting to a member of royalty), to accompany (someone) in order to assist or wait upon them; to escort.
   • Servants attend the king day and night.
   • I thinke your Lordſhip is not ignorant / Hovv his companion, youthfull Valentine, / Attends the Emperour in his royall Court.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

   Synonyms:

   bestand, serve, aid, attend to, await, bestead, dance attendance, do, do for, service

3. (transitive) To be present at (an event or place) in order to take part in some action or proceedings; also, to regularly go to (an event or place).
   • Children must attend primary school.
   • Andreas too attended Church; yet more like a parade-duty, for which he in the other world expected pay with arrears,— […]1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Idyllic”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 68
4. (transitive) To take action with respect to (someone, or something such as a concern, problem, or task); to deal with, to handle.
5. (transitive) Of a (chiefly immaterial) thing: to be consequent to or present with (someone or something); to accompany.
   • a measure attended with ill effects
   • [I] haue alſo attended them vvith briefe obſeruations, ſuch as to my vnderſtandinge, offer noe violence to the ſence, though I knovve they may bee applyed to a more diuine vſe: […]1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for...
6. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To look after (someone or something); to tend.
   • They [plate and jewels] are in a Trunke / Attended by my men: I vvill make bold / To ſend them to you, onely for this night: […]1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
   • One ſeek the harbour vvhere the veſſels moor, / And bring thy friends, Telemachus! aſhore, / (Leave only tvvo the gally to attend) / Another to Laerceus muſt vve ſend, […]1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 130, lines 536–539
7. (intransitive) Followed by to: to look after someone or something.
   • Valets attend to their employers’ wardrobes.
   • Lenny still went to church—a church a long way off in another parish—but the sermons did not do him the same good as Parson Dale's had done; and the clergyman, who had his own flock to attend to, did not condescend, as Parson Dale would have done, to explain what seemed obscure, and enforce what...1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XVI, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book third...
8. (intransitive) To be ready to wait upon someone or their instructions as an attendant, servant, etc.; also (followed by on or upon), to accompany someone in order to assist or wait upon them.
   • [H]e entertained a gard of three thovvſand about him, beſides a band of young gentlemen of the order of knightes that attended alvvayes upon his perſone ready at commaundement, vvhom he called the garde againſt the Senate.1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “The Life of Sylla”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 505
   • Th' officious Nymphs, attending in a Ring, / VVith VVaters dravvn from their perpetual Spring, / From earthly dregs his Body purify, / And rub his Temples, vvith fine Tovvels, dry: / Then load the Tables vvith a lib'ral Feaſt, / And honour vvith full Bovvls their friendly Gueſt.1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 138...
9. (intransitive) Followed by at: to go to and be present at a place for some purpose; also (obsolete), followed by on: to be present at and take part in an event.
   • He died (according to Hermippas) at Piſa, embracing his ſon, victor in the Olympick games, of the cæſtus, the vveakneſſe of his age overcome vvith exceſſe of joy; all vvho vvere preſent at the great aſſembly attended on his funeralls, […]1655, Thomas Stanley, “[Chilon.] Chap[ter] III. His Death, and Writings.”, in The History of Philosophy. […], volume I, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 1st part...
   • All persons, of whatever rank, attended at the County Courts, but they did not go there as judges, they went to sue for justice; to be informed of their duty, and to be bound to the performance of it. Thus all sorts of people attended at the Wittenagemotes, not to make laws, but to attend at the...1760, Edmund Burke, “An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. […]. Chapter VII. Of the Laws and Institutions of the Saxons.”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable...
10. (intransitive) Followed by to: to take action with respect to someone or something; to deal with.
    • Secretaries attend to correspondence.
    • [T]he two captains, Peleg and Bildad, could attend to everything necessary to fit the vessel for the voyage.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Going Abroad”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 108
11. (intransitive) Followed by on or upon: of a (chiefly immaterial) thing: to be consequent on or present with.
    • But I aſſeſt the gods, your full conſent, / Gaue vvings to my propenſion, and cut off / All feares attending on ſo dire a proiect, […]c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609...
    • [K]novvledge dravvne freſhly and in our vievv out of particulers, knovveth the vvaie beſt to particulers againe. And it hath much greater life for practiſe: vvhen the diſcourſe attendeth vpon the Example, then vvhen the example attenddeth^([sic]) vpon the diſcourſe.1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for...
12. (archaic, transitive) To listen to (something or someone).
    • Pyrocles minde was all thius while so fixed upon another devotion, that he no more attentively marked his friends discourse, then […] the diligent pilot in a dangerous tempest doth attend the unskilful words of a passinger: […]c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New...
    • Avvay, I do condemne mine eares, that haue / So long attended thee.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

    Synonyms:

    behear