I.
noun
ADJECTIVE
▪ successful
▪ abortive , botched , failed , fruitless , futile , ill-fated , misguided , unsuccessful , vain
▪
her vain ~ to save her son's life
▪ conscious , deliberate
▪ bold , brave , concerted , determined , serious , valiant
▪ blatant
▪ feeble , half-hearted , lame , pathetic , weak
▪
She smiled at my feeble ~ at humour/humor.
▪
I made a half-hearted ~ at cleaning my apartment.
▪ clumsy , crude
▪ desperate , frantic , last-ditch
▪
a desperate ~ to find survivors
▪ repeated
▪
repeated ~s to break through enemy lines
▪ first
▪
That's not bad for a first ~.
▪ assassination , coup , escape , rescue , suicide
▪
Rescue ~s were stopped because of bad weather.
VERB + ATTEMPT
▪ make
▪
She has made no ~ to contact her mother.
▪ succeed in
▪
He succeeded in his ~ to break the world record.
▪ abandon , fail in , give up
▪
He abandoned his ~ to reach the summit.
▪ foil , thwart
▪
Their ~ to break out of prison was foiled.
▪ resist
▪
The board said it would resist any ~ to take control of the company.
ATTEMPT + VERB
▪ succeed
▪ fail
PREPOSITION
▪ in an/the ~
▪
In an ~ to ward off criticism, the government has made education a priority.
▪ ~ at
▪
He made a feeble ~ at a smile.
▪ ~ by
▪
an ~ by workers to prevent job losses
PHRASES
▪ an ~ on sb's life (= an attempt to kill sb)
▪ at the first, second, etc. ~ ( esp. BrE ), in the first, second, etc. ~ ( AmE )
▪
I passed my test at/in the first ~.
II.
verb
Attempt is used with these nouns as the object: ↑ comeback , ↑ crossing , ↑ escape , ↑ feat , ↑ manoeuvre , ↑ reconciliation , ↑ rescue , ↑ stunt , ↑ suicide