Attack: the dictionary definition

attack

   
      n  

1    aggression, assault, campaign, charge, foray, incursion, inroad, invasion, offensive, onset, onslaught, raid, rush, strike  

2    abuse, blame, calumny, censure, character assassination, criticism, denigration, impugnment, stick     (slang)   vilification  

3    access, bout, convulsion, fit, paroxysm, seizure, spasm, spell, stroke  
      vb  

4    assail, assault, charge, fall upon, invade, lay into     (informal)   raid, rush, set about, set upon, storm, strike (at)  

5    abuse, berate, bite someone's head off, blame, blast, censure, criticize, excoriate, go for the jugular, have a go (at)     (informal)   impugn, lambast(e), malign, put down, revile, snap someone's head off, tear into     (informal)   vilify  
  

Until very recently, I never really thought of how similiar in meaning the words "excoriate," "set upon," "go for the jugular," "assault," "attack," "abuse," "blast" are.

Her line of attack that had been carefully planned out in the weeks before.   I did not come to the meeting with an attack in my mind, although I did feel anxious because of a threat she had made the evening before in an email.  That is the major difference between the two sides of the coin:  my hostility (and use of an expletive) was provoked by her going for the jugular.

Hindsight is, indeed, 20/20.