Word of the Day

: May 16, 2018

aggress

verb uh-GRESS

What It Means

: to make an attack : to act aggressively

aggress in Context

Certain indicators, such as irritability, can signify an animal's likelihood to aggress.

"Under-socialized dogs are risks to their owners and to others because they can become frightened by everyday things, making them more likely to aggress or bite." — Dottie Nelson, The Addison County (Vermont) Independent, 17 July 2017

Did You Know?

Aggress and its more familiar relatives aggression and aggressive derive from the Latin verb aggredī, meaning "to approach, attack, or undertake." Although the modern word aggress carries only the second of these three meanings, the word could when it was first used in English in the 16th century also mean "to approach." That use is now obsolete. There also exists a noun aggress, which is too rare to qualify for entry in even our unabridged dictionary.  It typically means "an attack," but also has an obsolete meaning of "an approach."