ACCRETION • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Accretion

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/əkrˈiʃən/ Listen

noun

accretion n.

1.

The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.

2.

The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth. "A mineral... augments not by growth, but by accretion." "To strip off all the subordinate parts of his narrative as a later accretion."

3.

Concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.

4.

A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.

5.

(Law)

(a)

The adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or soil from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.

(b)

Gain to an heir or legatee, by failure of a coheir to the same succession, or a co-legatee of the same thing, to take his share.

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Etymology of 'Accretion'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Accretion" Quotes from Famous Books

... of innumerable wild ducks. The City of Santo Domingo is situated on the west bank of the Ozama River, the mouth of which constitutes the city's harbor. Since the town was founded four centuries ago the width of the river here seems to have diminished by fully one-fourth owing to accretion along the shores. A bar across the entrance renders access impracticable for vessels drawing more than fifteen feet of water. This bar has given considerable trouble, for at times it has grown in such manner ...

— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich

... and the two following days, the requested reinforcements, in number some 1,500 men of all arms, arrived. With this accretion of strength it was now possible to renew the offensive, and General French at once turned his attention to the capture of Grassy Hill (Suffolk Hill on map No. 16), which he had early marked as the key to the Boer stronghold. This height lay at the junction of the roads ...

— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice

... then an obvious necessity; kings and princes vied with each other in raising them, and no one questioned their utility. They are now a mere luxury for ecclesiastically minded persons, built by slow accretion, and not by some huge single gift, to please the pride of a county or a city; and this in days when England is a thousandfold richer than she was. They are no longer a part of the essence of life; life has flowed away from their portals, and left them a beautiful ...

— The Upton Letters • Arthur Christopher Benson

... 4th) and the two following days, the requested reinforcements, in number some 1,500 men of all arms, arrived. With this accretion of strength it was now possible to renew the offensive, and General French at once turned his attention to the capture of Grassy Hill (Suffolk Hill on map No. 16), which he had early marked as the key to the Boer stronghold. This height lay at the junction of the roads leading ...

— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice

... day and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental liberty. It is then that the plight of being alive becomes attenuated to its least possible dimensions. She had no fear of the shadows; her sole idea seemed to be to shun mankind—or rather that cold accretion called the world, which, so terrible in the mass, is so unformidable, even pitiable, in ...

— Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman • Thomas Hardy

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