attachment

Etymology

From French attachement. By surface analysis, attach + -ment.

noun

1. The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching.
   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.
   I have such an attachment towards my fiancé!
3. A dependence, especially a strong one.
   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.
   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.
   [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.
   attachment of earnings
8. (meteorology) The act or process by which any (downward) leader connects to any available (upward) streamer in a lightning flash.
   2009, Jakke Mäkelä, Eero Karvinen, Niko Porjo, Antti Mäkelä and Tapio Tuomi, Attachment of Natural Lightning Flashes to Trees: Preliminary Statistical Characteristics, published in the Journal of Lightning Research, volume 1