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Friday February 21, 2003

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aggress \uh-GRES\ , intransitive verb:
To commit the first act of hostility or offense; to make an attack.

Nagaraj can never bring himself to aggress or fight back, but he is capable of a delicious malice.
-- Julian Moynahan, "India of the Imagination. . .", New York Times, July 15, 1990

The hand . . . is the most versatile of organs. Through its agency we lift, pinch, squeeze, explore, feel, learn, discriminate, repulse, caress, aggress.
-- F. Gonzalez-Crussi, "The Hand", Washington Post, July 19, 1998

A master of drawing, Rico Lebrun, discovered that "the draftsman must aggress; only by persistent assault will the live image capitulate and give up its secret to an unrelenting line."
-- Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop", New York Times, May 28, 1989

Aggress is from French agresser, from Latin aggredi, aggress-, "to approach, to approach aggressively, to attack," from ad-, "to" + gradi, "to step, to walk."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for aggress

 

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