I have been under the impression "melee attack" refers to a normal attack to do damage. In this thread, the issue came up in reference to Opportune Parry and Riposte - would a Trip, Disarm, or Sunder count as a melee attack?
(I have a vested interest because my next character will be a Swashbuckler... while I don't think a Trip attempt can be parried, that would be nice if it could!)
I have been under the impression "melee attack" refers to a normal attack to do damage. In this thread, the issue came up in reference to Opportune Parry and Riposte - would a Trip, Disarm, or Sunder count as a melee attack?
(I have a vested interest because my next character will be a Swashbuckler... while I don't think a Trip attempt can be parried, that would be nice if it could!)
While many combat maneuvers can be performed as part of an attack action, full-attack action, or attack of opportunity (in place of a melee attack), others require a specific action.
Judging by the bolded bit there, I'm going to say no. A combat maneuver is an attack, as it uses an "attack roll", but I don't think it's a melee attack. Further evidence of this is that in table 8-2 in the CRB the two are listed as separate entries. The exception would be something like grab, where doing a melee attack gets you a bonus combat maneuver check.
That's my take on it at least.
This line seems to confuse the issue further:
Some combat maneuvers substitute for a melee attack, not an action. As melee attacks, they can be used once in an attack or charge action, one or more times in a full-attack action, or even as an attack of opportunity. Others are used as a separate action.
Does it substitute for a melee attack, or is it a melee attack?
I read "As" there as "When substituting for". It would read better as "As melee attack actions", but it's not precisely an action (or rather precisely not an action due to the previous sentence), so they can't say that, and there isn't another word that means "the game unit used up by a melee attack".