工
=
二
+
丨
:
Mnemonic symbol: a steel beam, since 工 looks like the cross section of a steel beam. In front of the engine ((e)ng1), Gitta Giraffe (gu) is doing some hard work: She's stacking a capacitor (二) on a dinosaur bone (丨) on a capacitor (二). She's not very successful, but then she gets the idea to use steel beams (工) as support.
攵
=
𠂉
+
乂
:
Mnemonic symbol: the epitome of rapping and tapping is a sledge hammer. Petra pinguin (pu) forgot her key (𠂉) and know she's locked out of the space station (Ø1). At first she tries to open the lock with pliers (乂), but in the end she has no choice but to use the sledge hammer (攵).
Characters with 攻 as component
攻
is not used as a component in another character.
(military) to mount a secondary attack / (fig.) to assist in tackling a problem / (sports) to participate in a play in which a teammate scores (i.e. perform an assist)
lit. the other mountain's stone can polish jade (idiom); to improve oneself by accepting criticism from outside / to borrow talent from abroad to develop the nation effectively
lit. use sb's spear to attack his shield (idiom, derived from Han Feizi 韓非子|韩非子); turning a weapon against its owner / fig. to attack an opponent using his own devices / hoist with his own petard