| 释义 |
accretion|əˈkriːʃən|
[ad. L. accrētiōn-em, n. of action, f. accrēt- ppl. stem of accrēsc-ĕre; see accresce.]
1. The process of growing by organic enlargement; continued growth.
1615Crooke Body of Man 430 The action of the Increasing faculty we call Accretion, that is, when the whole body encreaseth in all his dimensions. 1684Leighton on 1 Peter ii. 1 (1817) To desire the word for the increase of knowledge..is necessary and commendable and being rightly qualified is a part of spiritual accretion. c1720Gibson Diet of Horses v. 78 (ed. 3) Young Horses require a greater quantity of food, as that is necessary for the Accretion and Growth of their Bodies. 1828Kirby & Spence Introd. Entom. IV. xxxix. 82 The blood is the principal instrument of accretion. 1859Helps Friends in C. II. x. 232 The tendency of all power is to accretion, and indeed, to very rapid accretion.
2. The growing together or coherence of separate particles, or of parts normally distinct; continuous coherence; concretion.
1655–60T. Stanley Hist. Philos. 183/2 (1701) After the second accretion followeth this contemplation which holdeth the third room. 1656tr. Hobbes's Elem. Philos. 479 (1839) As for stones, seeing they are made by the accretion of many hard particles within the earth. 1794Sullivan View of Nat. I. 94 Compounded indurated matters which are, formed by the accretion of particles, accumulated and deposited by water. 1853Phillips Rivers of Yorksh. iii. 43 The drop, gathered by accretion of minute particles, may be snow, ice, or water. 1866Felton Anc. & Mod. Greece I. ii. 24 They [languages] agree, with a single doubtful exception, in the agglutinating or synthetic method, called by Humboldt incorporation, by Cass, coalescence, and by Schoolcraft, accretion.
3. Anything formed by the preceding process.
1873H. Rogers Orig. Bible (ed. 3) iv. 171 That the Bible is an accretion of casual writings arbitrarily linked together.
4. The process of growth by external addition.
1626Bacon Sylva vii. §602 (1651) 125 Plants doe nourish; Inanimate Bodies doe not: They have an Accretion, but no Alimentation. 1627Hakewill Apol. i. iv. §i. 40 The losse of Elements is recovered by compensation, of mixt Bodies without life by accretion, of living Bodies by succession. 1678Hobbes Decam. Physiol. viii. 94 They may by accretion become greater in the Mine, or perhaps by generation, though we know not how. 1836Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 33/1 An organized part increases in its dimensions..not by mere accretion, nor by simple distention. 1869Nicholson Zool. 2 When unorganised bodies increase in size, as crystals do, the increase is produced simply by what is called ‘accretion,’ that is to say, by the addition of fresh particles from the outside. 1871Farrar Witn. Hist. i. 39 The presumptuous arrogance which can measure its [a crystal's] angles, but throw no light on the laws of its accretion.
†5. The assimilation of external matter by a growing body. Obs.
1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Pet. iii. 18 (1865) 819 I must lay to your charge..the acquisition [of grace], and the accretion of it.
6. The adhesion of external matter or things to anything so as to increase it.
1713Steele Englishman No. 2, 12 A false Appearance of Wealth within, but no Accretion of Riches from abroad. 1765Delaval in Phil. Trans. LV. 38 Augmented by the accretion of the oily and earthy parts of that moisture. 1873Goulburn Pers. Relig. ii. 12 This constant discharge of old particles, or accretion of new ones..is a sign of the vitality of the body. 1876T. Le M. Douse Grimm's Law §61. 151 The accretion after K pure, of the palatal semivowel y. 1881Daily Tel. 8 Mar. To the fund estimated to be produced by the accretion of new subscribers must be added the large percentage of renewed subscriptions.
7. That which has grown upon or been gradually added from without; an extraneous addition.
1653A. Wilson James I Proem 4 To remove the accretion of bad Humors. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 96 Those places..have buried the fallen Trees three, four, or five foot deep in the ground, by an accretion or cover of Earth. 1774Bryant Mythol. I. 164 This accretion will be in every age enlarged; till there will at last remain some few outlines only of the original occurrence. 1853Merivale Rom. Rep. v. 150 (1867) He strove to pare away the accretions of age. 1878Gladstone in 19th Cent. 752 Professor Geddes divides the Iliad into a primary work and a later secondary addition or accretion.
8. Law.
a. The increase of property by the adherence of something to it, as of land by the formation of alluvium; = accession.
b. The increase of an inheritance or legacy by the addition of the share of a failing co-heir or co-legatee.
1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 308 To this source the rapid accretions of land on parts of the Syrian shores where rivers do not enter, may be attributed. 1880Muirhead Gaius ii. §124 If a man have instituted say his three sons as his heirs, but have passed over his daughter, she by accretion becomes heir to the extent of a fourth of the inheritance. Ibid. 447 Where there were several agnates of the same degree, and some declined the inheritance, their shares went by accretion to those who took.
Add:9. Special Comb. accretion disc Astron., a rotating disc of matter which forms around a massive body such as a black hole or neutron star owing to the gravitational attraction of the latter.
1972Astron. & Astrophysics XXI. 1 It is emphasized that *accretion discs can display a wide range of properties (depending on the accretion rate, viscosity, etc.). 1988Sci. Amer. Apr. 15/3 The models suggest that some accretion disks could be sufficiently dense and hot for thermonuclear fusion to occur. 1990W. R. Peltier in Mungall & McLaren Planet under Stress (1991) 80 The ‘accretion disc’ of gas and dust that was probably created from this explosion was later the context for the Earth-formative events that began over 4.5 billion years later. |