attend

Verb

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

1. (archaic, transitive) To listen to (something or someone); to pay attention to; regard; heed. [from 15th c.]
   • Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

     The diligent pilot in a dangerous tempest doth not attend the unskilful words of the passenger.

2. (archaic, intransitive) To listen (to, unto). [from 15th c.]
3. (intransitive) To turn one's consideration (to); to deal with (a task, problem, concern etc.), to look after. [from 15th c.]

   Secretaries attend to correspondence.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 15, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.

4. (transitive) To wait upon as a servant etc.; to accompany to assist (someone). [from 15th c.]

   Valets attend to their employer's wardrobe.

   • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)

     The fifth had charge sick persons to attend.

   • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

     Attends the emperor in his royal court.

   • Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)

     With a sore heart and a gloomy brow, he prepared to attend William thither.

5. (transitive) To be present at (an event or place) in order to take part in some action or proceedings; to regularly go to (an event or place). [from 17th c.]

   Children must attend primary school.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 20:

     I attended a one-room school next door to the palace and studied English, Xhosa, history and geography.

6. (intransitive, law) To go to (a place) for some purpose (with at).
   • 2011, Supreme Court of Canada, R. v. Côté‎, retrieved 2016-05-08:

     Around 12:15 a.m. patrolling officers Tremblay and Mathieu attended at the appellant’s home.

   • 2016, Prince Edward Island Court of Appeal, R. v. Yeo‎, retrieved 2016-05-08:

     There were a few errors in the testimony of [a civilian witness] which the trial judge noted – one, that they attended at the Fairhurst residence the day before the robbery, and two, that Wakelin was with them.

7. To be present with; to accompany; to be united or consequent to.

   a measure attended with ill effects

   • John Dryden (1631-1700)

     What cares must then attend the toiling swain.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

8. To wait for; to await; to remain, abide, or be in store for.
   • John Locke (1632-1705)

     the state that attends all men after this

   • John Dryden (1631-1700)

     Three days I promised to attend my doom.

Verb

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

1. Alternative form of atend ("to kindle").

Declension