- reach
- reach vb Reach, gain, compass, achieve, attain can mean to arrive at a point by effort or work.Reach is the most general term, being capable of reference to whatever can be arrived at by exertion of any degree and applicable to such diverse matters as a point in space, in time, or in a development, or as a destination, a goal, or a position of eminence{
they reached the city that night
}{after a long discussion they reached an understanding
}In extended use reach may be predicated even of inanimate things{the hour hand has reached two
}{the depression has reached bottom
}Gain usually implies a struggle to reach a contemplated or desired destination or goal{gained the confidence of the mountain people by his .. . sympathetic approach— Persons
}{I had gained the frontier and slept safe that night— Browning
}Compass implies efforts to get around difficulties or to transcend limitations; it often connotes skill or craft in management{a writer who is attempting a higher strain of elevation or pathos than his powers can compass— Montague
}{if you can compass it, do cure the younger girls of running after the officers— Austen
}Achieve can stress the skill or the endurance as well as the efforts involved in reaching an end{some are born great, some achieve greatness— Shak.
}{no government or private organization could give health; people had to achieve it— Heiser
}Often it implies accomplishment of something that is in itself a feat or triumph{a complete moral unity such as England achieved— Belloc
}Attain connotes more strongly than any of the others the spur of aspiration or ambition{his constant efforts to attain his ends
}It is therefore especially referable to ends beyond the vision, the scope, or the powers of most men{this indispensable condition of the safety and civilization of the world is, indeed, very difficult to attain— Hobson
}{a fine balance of all the forces of the human spirit such as but once or twice has been attained in the world's history— Binyon
}reach n *range, gamut, radius, compass, sweep, scope, orbit, horizon, ken, purview
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
