atacar
transitive verb
2 (Med) (Química) [+enfermedad, plaga, sustancia] to attack
ataca al hígado it attacks the liver; la gripe me ataca todos los inviernos I get struck down by the flu every winter; me estaba atacando el sueño I was succumbing to sleep; este niño me ataca los nervios that child gets on my nerves (familiar)
3 (criticar) [+teoría, planteamiento, propuesta] to attack
atacaron despiadadamente su enfoque marxista they mercilessly attacked her Marxist approach
4 (combatir) [+problema] to tackle; combat
se pretende atacar el desempleo the aim is to tackle o combat unemployment; pretenden atacar la epidemia de meningitis they aim to tackle o combat the meningitis epidemic
5 (abordar)
el gobierno debe atacar la reforma laboral the government should get moving on labour reform (familiar); tengo que atacar a las matemáticas I'll have to get stuck into my maths (familiar); la orquesta atacó la novena de Beethoven the band launched into Beethoven's Ninth; ¿puedo atacar al pastel? can I get stuck into the cake? (familiar)