attend

verb

1. (transitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “The fift [beadsman] had charge ſick perſons to attend, / And comfort thoſe, in point of death vvhich lay; […]”

   “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 ſay, murthering of them: […]”

   “Is any ſick? the Man of Roſs relieves; / Preſcribes, attends, the med'cine makes, and gives.”

2. (transitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “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.”

   “Madame, the young Gentleman of the Count Orſino’s is return’d, I could hardly entreate him backe: he attends your Ladyſhips pleaſure.”

   “[I]f common Anglers ſhould attend you, and be eye-vvitneſſes of the ſucceſs, not of your fortune, but your skill, it vvould doubtleſs beget in them an emulation to be like you, and that emulation might beget an induſtrious diligence to be so: but I knovv it is not attainable by common capacities.”

   “[He] told me, that he had promiſed to attend ſome ladies in the park, and, if I vvas going the ſame vvay, vvould take me in his chariot.”

3. (transitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “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,— […]”

   “It was made a crime to attend a dissenting place of worship. A single justice of the peace might convict without a jury, and might, for the third offence, pass sentence of transportation beyond sea for seven years.”

   “The scribe attendeth the meeting of a learned body where the discussions are technical and rapid; yet he must produce a complete and intelligible transcript.”

   “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.”

4. (transitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.
5. (transitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “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: […]”

   “[M]y ſelfe and my poore prayers ſhall to my laſt gaſpe labour to attend you.”

   “Piety VVhat moved you at firſt to betake yourſelf to a Pilgrims life? / Chr[istian]. I vvas driven out of my Native Countrey, by a dreadful ſound that vvas in mine ears, to vvit, that unavoidable deſtruction did attend me, if I abode in that place vvhere I vvas.”

   “Novv ſing vve ſtormy Stars, vvhen Autumn vveighs / The Year, and adds to Nights, and ſhortens Days; / And Suns declining ſhine vvith feeble Rays: / VVhat cares muſt then attend the toiling Svvain; / Or vvhen the lovv'ring Spring, vvith laviſh Rain, / Beats dovvn the ſlender Stem and bearded Grain: […]”

6. (archaic, obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “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: […]”

   “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, […]”

7. (intransitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “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 was profitable, in private talk, with that stray lamb from another's fold.”

8. (intransitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “[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.”

   “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.”

   “Following on the veiled Bride / Fifty female slaves attend / In costly robes that gleam / With interwoven gold, […]”

   “[T]wenty yeomen, two and two, / In hosen black, and jerkins blue, / With falcons broider'd on each breast, / Attended on their lord's behest.”

   “He […] had sought his place in the live universe by attending on drunk people and helping them home through the midnight streets, […]”

9. (intransitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

   “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, […]”

   “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 promulgation of the laws; as among so free a people every institution must have wanted much of its necessary authority, if not confirmed by the general approbation.”

   “'Whither goest thou?' he exclaimed, 'at this hour, were it not better thou attendedst at vespers?'”

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

   “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.”

10. (intransitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

    “Secretaries attend to correspondence.”

    “[T]he two captains, Peleg and Bildad, could attend to everything necessary to fit the vessel for the voyage.”

    “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.”

11. (intransitive)Senses relating to caring for or waiting on someone, or accompanying or being present.

    “But I aſſeſt the gods, your full conſent, / Gaue vvings to my propenſion, and cut off / All feares attending on ſo dire a proiect, […]”

    “[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.”

    “The country in the neighbourhood of this village resembled, to a greater degree, the scenery of Switzerland; but every thing is on a lower scale, and the green hills want the crown of distant white Alps, which always attend on the piny mountains of my native country.”

12. (archaic, transitive)Senses relating to directing one's attention.

    “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: […]”

    “Avvay, I do condemne mine eares, that haue / So long attended thee.”

    “But Goddess! thou, thy ſuppliant Son attend, / To high Olympus’ ſhining Court aſcend, / Urge all the Ties to former Service ovv'd, / And ſue for Vengeance to the Thund'ring God.”

    “[M]y tale / Attend, nor deem of light avail, / Though I must speak of worldly love,— […]”

13. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to directing one's attention.

    “If thou attendeſt thy Philosophy, I am glad of it, for that in truth is to be in health. VVithout it the minde is ſicke, and the bodie alſo notvvithſtanding it be ſtrong and able: for it is no othervviſe healthie then as a man might ſay, the bodie of one that is madde and troubled vvith the frenſie.”

    “Attend thy footſteps vvhen thou dravveſt near / The House of God; […]”

    “The Maids officious round their Miſtreſs vvait, / Then all diſperſing, various Tasks attend; […]”

14. (intransitive)Senses relating to directing one's attention.

    “Wherfore ye muſt needs be ſubiect [to rulers], not onely for wrath, but alſo for conſcience ſake. For, for this cauſe pay you tribute alſo: for they are Gods ministers, attending continually vpon this very thing.”

    “[T]here is a Griſon Regiment kept ſtill in pay by the Spaniards, there are in it tvvelve Companies of fifty a piece, and the Captains have a thouſand Crovvns pay, tho they are not obliged to attend upon the ſervice: […]”

    “The preſent Argument is the moſt abſtracted that ever I engaged in, it ſtrains my Faculties to their higheſt Stretch; and I deſire the Reader to attend with utmoſt perpenſity; For, I now proceed to unravel this knotty Point.”

    “It will be sufficient for me if I discover many beauties or imperfections which others have not attended to; and I should be very glad to see one of our eminent writers publish their discoveries on the same subject.”

    “I hesitated before I answered; when Frankenstein, who had at first been silent, and, indeed, appeared hardly to have force enough to attend, now roused himself; his eyes sparkled, and his cheeks flushed with momentary vigour.”

15. (archaic, intransitive)Senses relating to directing one's attention.

    “Thoſe Vnckles vvhich you vvant, vvere dangerous, / Your Grace attended to their ſugred vvords, / But lookt not on the poiſon of their hearts: […]”

    “Heare the right, O Lord, attend vnto my crie, giue eare vnto my prayer, that goeth not out of fained lips.”

    “Thus Chryſes pray’d: the fav’ring Povv’r attends, / And from Olympus’s lofty Tops deſcends.”

    “VVhilſt I vvas haſtening in my flight, I ſaid, "I am rejected from thy favour." Nevertheleſs thou attendedſt to my petition, vvhen I invoked thee.”

    “'Now attend to me,' said Painted Jaguar, 'because this is very important.[…]'”

16. (archaic, obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to waiting for something.

    “Ægyptian ingenuity vvas more unſatisfied, contriving their bodies in ſvveet conſiſtences, to attend the return of their ſouls. But all vvas vanity, feeding the vvinde, and folly.”

    “Three days I promis'd to attend my Doom, / And tvvo long days and nights are yet to come: […]”

    “In the City of London, beſides the great Numbers and Riches of the Inhabitants, vvere retired moſt of the great Nobles of the Kingdom, both Eccleſiaſtical and Secular, vvho had not been engaged in Action of either Side, and attended, vvhat vvould be the Iſſue of this ſtrong and violent Convulſion of the State.”

    “Fathers, vve once again are met in Council. / [Julius] Cæsar’s Approach has ſummon’d us together, / And Rome attends her Fate from our Reſolves: […]”

    “Here I attend / The King—and lo! he comes.— […]”

17. (archaic, obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to waiting for something.

    “Yet ſatteſt thou an idle looker on, / And glad attendeſt vvhich ſide vvonne or loſt: […]”

    “This offer vvas contumeliouſly rejected; the Capuans relying on their ovvne ſtrength, and the ſuccours attended from Hannibal.”

18. (archaic, figuratively, obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to waiting for something.

    “To him, I ſay, vvho hath a proſpect of the different State of perfect Happineſs or Miſery that attends all Men after this Life, depending on their Behaviour here, the meaſures of Good and Evil, that govern his choice, are mightily changed.”

19. (archaic, intransitive, obsolete)Senses relating to waiting for something.

    “[…] God knocketh at the doore of our hearts, but vvorketh nothing in our hearts, till vve firſt of our ſelues aſſent to let him in. He attendeth till vve open him the gates, and then he vvith his heauenly gifts vvill enter in; […]”

    “The lady attended as if ſhe expected I ſhould go on.”

20. (archaic, intransitive, obsolete, rare)Senses relating to waiting for something.
21. (archaic, figuratively, intransitive, obsolete)Senses relating to waiting for something.
22. (obsolete)To intend (something).