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Glite Dictionary
🏢 To be present 🛠️ To deal with 👀 To pay attention ➕ To accompany 🩺 To care for
to attend

to attend

169 2.7
To take care of something that needs action
  • verb
  • /əˈtɛnd/
translation icon : atender
  • I looked over at Jerry, who was busy attending to his own possessions and those of the community.
  • attend to a need
  • attend to important matters
  • attend to more matters

So this is an important thing to attend to as well.

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Examples

  • Now if you'll excuse me, I have a family matter to attend to.

    Rush (2013)

  • I attended to the man who was injured by your wife.

    Doctor Zhivago (1965)

  • I have business to attend to.

    Bel Ami (2012)

  • Now there is a matter of business to attend to.

    Shrek the Third (2007)

  • I'll just attend to a small matter.

    Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

  • There are urgent matters for you to attend to.

    The Lost City (2005)

  • I've got business to attend to.

    The Matador (2005)

  • Having identified these guiding principles, we then attended to the nature of the instruction.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Regional hospital pandemic plans should attend specifically to efforts to alleviate health disparities and reduce access barriers.

    Academic text (2012)

  • I need to attend to the emails that have been piling up all week.

Synonyms

to take care
vsto attend
∞ 1.3

To look after a person or thing and deal with their needs

focuses on dealing with tasks needing immediate action rather than ongoing provision
to attend to
vsto attend
151 3.6

To take care of someone or something

is the simple verb form used without a following particle
to see about
vsto attend
  • Informal
91 3.0

To arrange and take care of something

focuses more on taking charge and dealing with needed action rather than arranging

Antonyms

to neglect
256 3.8

Fail to care for someone or something you should look after

to overlook
243 2.9

To not notice someone or something you should see

Phrasal Verbs

to attend to
151 3.6

To take care of someone or something

to attend church
15 1.9

Go to church regularly, usually for religious reasons

How Thorough

to resolve
623 3.3
to attend
169 2.7
to address
∞ 3.6
to notice
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

attend infinitive
attended past
attended past participle
attending present participle
attends third person singular

Morphology

attend = tend (transparent) = at + tend

This sense ('deal with / take charge of') aligns closely with the meaning of 'tend' (to care for / attend to), so the derivation is clear to learners.

Etymology

Attend also means to deal with something, and it comes from the idea of 'stretching' your effort toward a task; it shares the same root as tend 'to look after'. A helpful way to remember this is that to attend to something is to give it your care or action.