The center's much-hyped attempt to privatise Air India by disinvesting 74 percent equity has come a cropper.
I am still not able to understand how "attempt" is considered as noun rather then verb.
Any tip on how to figure out if a word is a verb or noun.
Here, attempt seems to be subject's action and in simple present tense. So attempt is satisfying both conditions of a verb i.e action and timing.
The above sentence is a line from news paper editorial.