attribute or credit to; "We attributed this quotation to Shakespeare"; "People impute great cleverness to cats"
If you ascribe something such as a quotation or a work of art to someone, you say that they said it or created it. He mistakenly ascribes the expression `survival of the fittest' to Charles Darwin. = attribute
To attribute, impute, or refer, as to a cause; as, his death was ascribed to a poison; to ascribe an effect to the right cause; to ascribe such a book to such an author
If you ascribe a quality to someone, you consider that they possess it. We do not ascribe a superior wisdom to government or the state. = attribute
If you ascribe an event or condition to a particular cause, you say or consider that it was caused by that thing. An autopsy eventually ascribed the baby's death to sudden infant death syndrome. = attribute