Definition of "attachment"

attachment

/əˈtæt͡ʃmənt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural attachments
1. The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching.
  Quotations
  The “implantation window” is a short, specific phase during which attachment of the blastocyst occurs.
  2005, Rebecca N. Baergen, Manual of Benirschke and Kaufmann's Pathology of the Human Placenta, page 71
2. A strong bonding with or fondness for someone or something.
3. A dependence, especially a strong one.
  Quotations
  Through every other kind of drug experience, however, ran his attachment to alcohol.
  2003, Griffith Edwards, Alcohol: The World's Favorite Drug, page 63
4. A device attached to a piece of equipment or a tool.
  Quotations
  Zimchenko's phone had a tape attachment, […]
  1978, Walter H. Wager, Time of reckoning, page 194
5. The means by which something is physically attached.
  Quotations
  [The umbilical cord is] the attachment connecting the fetus with the placenta.
  2012, Sinikka Elliott, Not My Kid: What Parents Believe about the Sex Lives of Their Teenagers, page 46
6. (computing) A file sent along with a message, usually an email.
7. (law) Taking a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt.
8. (meteorology) The act or process by which any (downward) leader connects to any available (upward) streamer in a lightning flash.