[a. F. attraction, 16th c. (in 13th c. attration), or ad. L. attractiōn-em, n. of action f. attrahĕre: see ATTRACT v. and -TION.]
I. The action of drawing or sucking in.
† 1. The drawing in or absorption of matter by any vessel of the body; the taking in of food. Obs.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), 46. Augmentation of heat, wherby hapneth the more attraction of thynges to be digested.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, N ij. Debylitie of attraction in ye milte.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. v. Attraction is a ministering faculty, which as a loadstone doth iron, draws meat into the stomach, or as a lamp does oil.
† 2. The drawing in of the breath, inspiration, inhalation. Obs.
1610. Gwillim, Heraldry, III. xxii. (1660), 232. It behoveth they should have both Attraction and Respiration.
1638. Venner, Tobacco, 411. Not sucking it into your windepipe and throat, with a sudden, or strong attraction.
II. The action or faculty of drawing to or towards the subject; the force that so draws; the fact of being so drawn.
† 3. Med. The action of drawing humours, etc.; concr. an application that so draws, a poultice, etc.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 H iv. The vsage of the herbe … for to make vyolent attraction.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physic, 14. Attractions must be applyed, as Pigeon’s dung, Sope.
† 4. Pulling, dragging, traction. Obs.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, II. 39. Neither do they [Cartilages] … be extended by Attraction, as doe the Ligamentes.
5. The action of a body or substance in drawing to itself, by some physical force, another to which it is not materially attached; the force thus exercised.
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 439. The Sunnes a Theefe, and with his great attraction Robbes the vaste Sea.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 704. Similitude of Substance will cause Attraction, where the Body is wholy freed from the Motion of Gravity.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., vii. 243. Attraction is an Operation, or Virtue, or Influence of distant Bodies upon each other through an empty Interval, without any Effluvia or Exhalations or other corporeal medium to convey and transmit it.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. 79. Attraction, according to the true sense of the word, supposes one body to act upon another at a distance, or where it is not.
1837. Brewster, Magnet., 265. A reciprocal tendency to unite, which is designated, and sometimes thought to be explained, by the merely descriptive word attraction.
Hence: The appropriate term for all the physical actions of this nature; (in every case attraction is used to name the power or force inferred, as well as the simple action of which we are cognizant).
a. Magnetic attraction: the action of a magnet or loadstone in drawing and attaching iron to itself. Electric attraction: the similar action of electrified substances upon certain other bodies.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 906. The Drawing of Amber and Iet, and other Electrick Bodies, and the Attraction in Gold of the Spirit of Quick-silver.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., 14. To solve the motion of the Sea, and Magnetick Attractions.
1686. Dryden, Hind & P., 370. Two magnets, heaven and earth, allude to bliss; The larger loadstone that, the nearer this; The weak attraction of the greater fails.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxviii. The attraction between electrified and unelectrified substances is merely a consequence of their altered state.
b. Attraction of gravity or gravitation: that which exists between all bodies, and acts at all distances, with a force proportional to their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of their distance apart.
1727. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The attraction of gravity is one of the greatest and most universal principles in all nature.
1843. Mill, Logic, III. xiv. § 2. Brought under the one law of the mutual attraction of all particles of matter.
1858. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., § 564. In so far as their orbits can remain unaltered by the attractions of the planets.
1865. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc., II. i. With gravity there is no selection: no particular atoms choose, by preference, other particular atoms as objects of attraction.
c. Molecular attraction: that which takes place between the molecules of bodies, and acts only at infinitely small distances. A. of cohesion: that by which the particles composing a body are kept together. A. of adhesion: that by which certain substances, when brought into contact, stick together. Capillary A.: that whereby a liquid is drawn up or ascends through a hair-like tube.
1727. Chambers, Cyclopædia, s.v., That which does not extend to sensible distances … a late ingenious author chuses to call the attraction of cohesion.
1788. Reid, Act. Powers, I. vi. The powers of corpuscular attraction, magnetism, electricity, gravitation.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., ii. (1814), 35. Attraction of cohesion … enables fluids to rise in capillary tubes … hence it is sometimes called capillary attraction.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), II. 50. Usually called capillary or molecular attraction.
1854. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc. Chem., 2. Attraction which is effective only at insensible distances … has been called contiguous attraction.
d. Chemical attraction = AFFINITY 9.
1790. Nicholson, Chem., vii. (title), On the Attractions exerted between Bodies, particularly those which the Chemists call Elective Attractions.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 35. Chemical attraction, the power by which different species of matter tend to unite into one compound.
1831. T. P. Jones, Convers. Chem., xx. 208. Both the compounds will be decomposed by the mutual interchange of their constituents, and two new compounds will be formed. All instances of this kind are said to result from double elective attraction, or complex affinity.
1865. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc., II. i. That molecular attraction which we call chemical affinity.
e. fig. Personal influence, figured as magnetic.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 160, ¶ 5. Many natures … seem to start back from each other by some invincible repulsion. There are others which immediately cohere whenever they come into the reach of mutual attraction.
1876. Hamerton, Intell. Life, IX. v. 323. The subtle, but powerful attraction of the greater mind over the less.
6. The action of causing men or animals to come to one by influencing their appetites or desires; or of encouraging the visits of things by providing fit conditions for their settlement.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 75. And all the nations summoned to the throne … None need a guide, by sure attraction led.
Mod. The attraction of the disaffected to his standard.
7. The action of drawing forth interest, affection or sympathy; the power of so doing; attractive influence.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom., II. xiii. 256. Place your glory in … kind attraction.
1848. Clough, Amours de Voy., II. There are two different kinds … of human attraction: One which simply disturbs, unsettles, and makes you uneasy.
1884. ‘Vernon Lee,’ in Contemp. Rev., XLV. 32–3. Boars and stag hunts had no attraction for quiet men of business.
8. A quality that draws forth the interest or admiration; an attracting quality. (Chiefly in pl.)
1608. Shaks., Per., V. i. 46. She, questionless, with her sweet harmonie and other choice attractions, would allure.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 41, ¶ 5. She had new Attractions every time he saw her.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 72, ¶ 11. The ornament of superficial attractions.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 158. By no means destitute of typographical attractions.
9. A thing or feature that draws people by appealing to their desires, tastes, etc.; esp. any interesting or amusing exhibition that ‘draws’ crowds. (Littré, in his Supplement, says that this ‘English sense’ of attraction began to be borrowed in French about the era of the Great Exhibitions, and had then, in 1869, become quite current.)
1862. W. Adams, Guide I. Wight (1873), 108. The Pier is of course the great ‘lion’ and main attraction of the place.
Mod. The Health Exhibition has been the great attraction of the season (1884).
