1515 in M. Livingstone Reg. Secreti Sigilli Regum Scotorum (1908) I. 407/1 To pas and repas..without ony atteching, aresting [etc.]

1543 R. Grafton Contin. in Chron. J. Hardyng f. iv After whose attachyng & imprisonment the realme was set in more quietnes.

?1576 A. Hall Let. touchyng Priuate Quarell sig. d.ij^v A warrant..for the attaching of Smalley.

1606 R. Knolles tr. J. Bodin Six Bks. Common-weale iii. 295 Their iurisdiction..extendeth not onely vnto the imposing of fines vpon the offendors, but euen to the attaching of their goods and bodies, and casting of them into prison.

1653 T. Urquhart Logopandecteision iii. 50 The Tenants (for fear of creditors attachings and arrestments) pay not their due, least they be forced to repay it.

1701 Law-Lat. Dict. at Attachment, in F. O. Law-French Dict. This Attaching is by three means, by Goods and Chattels, by Body, Pledges and Mainprise, or by the Body only.

1785 Gentleman & Debtor's Pocket Guide 3 The summons of any person, as upon any writ or suit, or for the arest or attaching of any person by his body or goods.

1858 T. W. Waterman Digest Reported Decisions Superior Court Connecticut 189 The attaching of property..gives the court jurisdiction of a cause otherwise not within its jurisdiction.

1909 Shoe Workers' Jrnl. July 88/1 A peculiar statute in the State of Connecticut..provides for the attaching of property before judgment is rendred [sic].

2011 G. Solanki Adjudication in Relig. Family Laws iii. 159 Nonpayment of an order..is treated as contempt of court, and the attaching of the property of the husband is one way to recover maintenance dues.

1764 T. Harmer Observ. Divers Passages Script. vi. 285 This attaching of stateliness and dignity to the riding on an horse obtained in Judæa before the times of Zechariah.

1836 Mechanics' Mag. 24 Sept. 442/1 A correspondent of one of the daily papers lately suggested the attaching of a dozen or twenty balloons to a ship-like car.

1888 Classical Rev. Mar. 87/2 The attaching of less importance to mechanical drill in grammar and unintelligent learning of vocabularies.

1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! v. 316 The ascription of actual individuality to a recurrent or ‘motto theme’ and the attaching of symbolic significance to its later transformations..are here perfectly justified.

2008 N. E. Balaban & J. Bobick Handy Anat. Answer Bk. 313 Implantation, the attaching of the blastocyst to the endometrium of the uterus.

1768 P. Pott Gen. Remarks Fractures & Dislocations iv. 142 Does not the distant separation of the edges imply greater separation of the attaching vessels of the dura mater?

1835 W. Kirby On Power of God in Creation of Animals I. viii. 237 The first [order] is Bimuscular, having two attaching muscles.

1872 Chronological & Descriptive Index Patents Applied for & Patents Granted 221 The first part of my invention relates to an improvement in the construction of common driving-whips,..and consists in making the tip independent of the stock, the two secured together by an attaching socket.

1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. iii. 98 The cytoplasm is really continued as a very thin envelope over the head, at the anterior end of which it is usually produced as a sharpened perforating or attaching organ called the acrosome or perforatorium.

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1038 A big pennon-seaweed, like Laminaria at low tide, shows an attaching root, a firm stem perhaps a yard long, and an expanded leaf.

1999 C. Mendelson Home Comforts l. 609/1 A shank button has a shank, or a projection on its back that has a hole in it, through which the attaching threads are drawn.

1785 T. Holcroft tr. Comtesse de Genlis Tales Castle III. 151 A child so extraordinary, so attaching [Fr. si attachante], could not, when become a woman, rest at mediocrity.

1798 Monthly Rev. Feb. 214 The Car struck us as most attaching: Silvester and Rosina as best adapted for the theme of an English poet.

1813 F. Burney Let. 26 Aug. (N.Y. Public Libr., Berg Coll. MSS vii. 5901) ‘Les Memoires de Mad. de Stael’..are so attaching, so evidently original, & natural.

1867 Bp. Salisbury Charge 11 That most attaching of friends, Dr. Arnold.

1902 Pall Mall Mag. Jan. 67/1 He will remain the most attaching and beautiful personage in private life.

1907 H. James Amer. Scene xiv. 441 It is the public..that becomes thus again the more attaching subject.

1970 G. Heyer Charity Girl vii. 104 There is something very attaching about her.