accretionn.
/əˈkriːʃn/, U.S. /əˈkriʃən/ 1. The process of growing by organic enlargement; continued and esp. gradual growth. Also: the amount accreted in this manner.
a. In physical contexts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > continuous increase
accrescence1606
accretion1615
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > types of growth
monstruosity1402
monstrosity1555
accretion1615
misgrowth1648
monstruousness1653
miscreance1658
homonomya1682
agenesis1827
hypertrophy1834
auxesis1842
overgrowth1844
neoplasia1871
ingrowth1877
concrescence1878
accrementition1879
neogenesis1884
geomalism1885
giantism1885
geomaly1889
merisis1940
1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 430 The action of the Increasing faculty we call Accretion, that is, when the whole body encreaseth in all his dimensions.
c1721 W. Gibson True Method dieting Horses v. 78 Young Horses require a greater Quantity of Food, as that is necessary for the Accretion and Growth of their Bodies.
1795 J. C. Lettsom Hints respecting Chlorosis of Boarding-schools iii. 20 The whole frame indeed is in a constant state of accretion, or growth, till at least the time of puberty.
1828 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. xxxix. 82 The blood is the principal instrument of accretion.
1917 Unpopular Rev. 7 186 When a spermatozoon enters an ovum, not only is the accretion of a new body begun, but the development (only partly by accretion) of a new soul.
1991 R. S. K. Barnes & K. H. Mann Fund. Aquatic Ecol. (ed. 2) xi. 221/1 A detailed calcium carbonate budget, showing net accretion, has been made for a leeward fringing reef in Barbados.
b. In non-physical and figurative contexts.
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a1684 R. Leighton Pract. Comm. 1st Epist. Peter (1693) I. 238 To desire the Word for the increase of knowledge..is necessary and commendable, and being rightly qualified is a part of spiritual accretion.
1714 tr. C. I. C. de Saint-Pierre Project for Everlasting Peace in Europe iv. 146 This society must in time..arrive at its whole Accretion, and its entire Settlement.
1859 A. Helps Friends in Council New Ser. II. x. 232 The tendency of all power is to accretion, and indeed, to very rapid accretion.
1900 Jrnl. Royal Inst. Brit. Architects 12 May 342/2 They found that the total accretion of Fellows in the fifty years from 1850 to 1900 was 498.
2002 Hist. Scotl. May 25/3 Despite his accretion of power, the elevation of their archrival to the office of regent was the saving of the Gordons.
2. † b. The assimilation of external matter by a growing body. (figurative in quot.) Obsolete.
a. The process of growing by the gradual external accumulation of matter; (also) an instance of this.
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a1626 F. Bacon Sylva Sylvarum (1627) vii. 154 §602 Plants doe nourish; Inanimate Bodies doe not: They have an Accretion, but no Alimentation.
1678 T. Hobbes Decameron Physiologicum viii. 94 They may by accretion become greater in the Mine, or perhaps by generation, though we know not how.
1753 H. Baker Employment for Microscope i. vii. 42 The floating Particles of such Salts become arranged in certain determined Figures, according to their respective Kinds, by Juxta-position, Accretion or Apposition.
1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 33/1 An organized part increases in its dimensions..not by mere accretion, nor by simple distention.
1894 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 38 411 Now if the v component of the motion of the disk is maintained without diminution during this accretion, a force, F..must be applied from without.
1952 G. H. Dury Map Interpr. viii. 77 The bar grows by accretion as more debris is thrown up.
1961 J. Stubblefield Davies's Introd. Palaeontol. (ed. 3) i. 7 Shell-growth..of the kind found in brachiopods, where the early stages of the shell are preserved and added to, to form the adult (growth by accretion).
1996 Outlook (New Delhi) 28 Aug. 76/3 Erosion occurs mostly during the monsoon months and the sea brings back the beach at the end of the monsoon in a process called accretion.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > incorporation or inclusion > assimilation or absorption > [noun]
suppinga1400
accretion1633
absorption1659
absorbitiona1682
intussusception1707
assimilating1781
assimilation1790
swallowing1816
submergence1826
introsusceptiona1834
merging1836
mergence1865
osmosis1930
recuperation1967
1633 T. Adams Comm. 2 Peter (iii. 18) 1517 I must lay to your charge... The acquisition [of grace], and the accretion of it.
c. Something that has grown on or been added gradually from an external source; an extraneous addition. Frequently figurative and in figurative contexts.
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a1652 A. Wilson Hist. Great Brit. (1653) Proem, sig. A3v To remove the accretion of bad Humors.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) 96 Those places..have buried the fallen Trees three, four, or five foot deep in the ground, by an accretion or cover of Earth.
1731 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Alluvion, an accession or accretion along the sea-shore, or the banks of large rivers by tempests or inundations.
1774 J. Bryant New Syst. (new ed.) I. 164 This accretion will be in every age enlarged; till there will at last remain some few outlines only of the original occurrence.
1813 J. C. Eustace Tour through Italy II. Diss. 463 Though the great body of Italian remain Latin, yet it is not difficult to discover some foreign accretions, and even point out the languages from which they have been taken.
1878 W. Gladstone in 19th Cent. 752 Professor Geddes divides the Iliad into a primary work and a later secondary addition or accretion.
1936 Mariner's Mirror 22 304 The final l in corwgl and cwrwgl is to be regarded as an accretion or excrescence of literary usage.
1951 L. P. Hartley My Fellow Devils xix. 186 The need to think of someone other than herself, purged her mind of some of the accretions of unregulated emotion that had formed round her thoughts.
1991 Adirondack June 41/2 The original house was virtually obscured by later architectural accretions.
d. Astronomy. The coming together and cohesion of matter to form a planet, star, or other celestial object, esp. under the influence of gravity; the growth of a celestial object by this means.
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1857 Sci. Amer. Apr. 251/2 The comet..may go to some other sun, and perform its curve around that, and so on, until its accretion, consolidation, and momentum bring it to that condition and order as to fit it for an organic orb in the family of a solar system.
1874 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 76 According to the other theory, the solar system, instead of contracting to its present condition, was formed by a process of accretion, due to the indrawing of great flights of meteoric and cometic matter.
1919 G. H. Lepper From Nebula to Nebula (ed. 4) xiv. 382 If we imagine this shoal gravitating together and building up our satellite by accretion, no violence is done the essential principles of Laplace's immortal Nebular Hypothesis.
1956 R. Carrington Guide Earth Hist. (1958) ii. 26 The larger planetesimals attracted the smaller ones to them, and in this way the planets were built up by a process of accretion.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 1/1 Accretion is understood as the accumulation of mass onto a static object (such as a star) from its surroundings, due to the gravitational pull of the object.
2002 Astron. in UK 6/3 In X-ray binaries, the gas is heated to very high temperatures as it is pulled off one star by gravity and dumped onto a very compact star, a process known as accretion.
3.
a. The growing of separate things (esp. particles) into one.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > constitution of matter > density or solidity > state of being thick enough to retain form > [noun] > cohesiveness > cohesion
nexe1626
accretion1656
cohesion1678
1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. v. 65 After the second accretion followeth this contemplation, which holdeth the third room.
1656 tr. T. Hobbes Elements Philos. vi. xxviii. 356 As for Stones, seeing they are made by the accretion of many very hard particles within the Earth.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature I. 94 Compounded indurated matters which are, formed by the accretion of particles, accumulated and deposited by water.
1853 J. Phillips Rivers, Mountains, & Sea-coast Yorks. iii. 43 The drop, gathered by accretion of minute particles, may be snow, ice, or water.
1867 Felton's Greece, Anc. & Mod. I. 24 They [sc. languages] agree, with a single doubtful exception, in the agglutinating or synthetic method, called by Humboldt incorporation, by Cass, coalescence, and by Schoolcraft, accretion.
1911 A. W. Bickerton Birth Worlds & Syst. v. 55 Continually the minute drops grow by accretion, as their orbits bring the particles together.
2002 Jrnl. Petrol. 43 1618/1 The distribution of belts has been attributed to successive lateral accretion of juvenile oceanic terranes, microcontinents and collisional sedimentary prisms.
b. Something formed by this process.
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1873 H. Rogers Superhuman Origin Bible (1875) iv. 171 That the Bible is an accretion of casual writings arbitrarily linked together.
1949 New Yorker 11 Dec. 15 An accretion of old-hat acting and staging traditions.
1982 W. Golding Moving Target (1984) 10 The present building, begun in the eleventh century, is the accretion of at least four hundred years of construction.
2000 Esquire Jan. 34/2 World's Scariest Explosions Caught on Tape reduces television to its primitive, banal essence, omitting ostensible basics like..narrative development in favor of a monotonous accretion of kabooms.
4. The adhesion or addition of external matter or things to something so as to increase it, esp. gradually in size or quantity. Also in figurative contexts.
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the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > fact or action of being joined or joining > attachment > [noun] > attaching or affixing
affixionc1429
tachingc1440
onsetting1501
adjunction?1545
annexing1573
affixation1610
tethering1672
accretion1713
attachment1753
attaching1764
affixture1854
adhibition1866
1713 R. Steele Englishman No. 2. 12 A false Appearance of Wealth within, but no Accretion of Riches from abroad.
1766 E. Delaval in Philos. Trans. 1765 (Royal Soc.) 55 38 Augmented by the accretion of the oily and earthy parts of that moisture.
1845 Times 2 Jan. 3/1 It is our policy..to increase by accretion and not through conquest—by the addition of masses held together by the cohesion of force.
1873 E. M. Goulburn Thoughts Pers. Relig. ii. 12 This constant discharge of old particles, or accretion of new ones..is a sign of the vitality of the body.
1876 T. Le M. Douse Grimm's Law §61. 151 The accretion after K pure, of the palatal semivowel y.
1881 Daily 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.
1908 Bible Rec. (N.Y.) Dec. 411 The accretion of legend around historical characters is the usual process.
1991 Hist. Workshop Spring 103 The reconstruction of the pre-Christian history of Ireland is recorded in the Lebor Gabhala or Book of Invasions, the creation of centuries of accretion, adaptation and reorganization of earlier records.
5. Law. (a) The increase in property by natural or regular growth (as of land by alluvion or dereliction, or of money by the addition of interest), or resulting from the assumption of ownership rights held by another; = accession n. 4; (also) an increase of this nature. (b) The increase of an inheritance or legacy by the addition of the share of a failing co-heir or co-legatee.Accretion is recognized as a concept in international law, whereby the acknowledged limits of a territory may grow (as where a boundary river changes course).
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > right to succeed to title, position, or estate > succession > [noun] > descent by inheritance > that which is inherited > increase in inheritance by death of coheir
accrual1768
accruer1865
accretion1880
1756 G. Harris tr. Justinian Institutions ii. vii. 36 There was formerly another manner of acquiring property by the civil law; namely by accretion; as for instance, if Primus had possessed a slave in common with Titius, and Primus had infranchised that slave..then would the share of Primus in that slave be lost and accrue to Titius.
1830 C. Lyell 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.
1880 J. Muirhead tr. Gaius Institutes ii. 117 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.
1880 J. Muirhead Inst. of Gaius & Rules of Ulpian Digest 447 Where there were several agnates of the same degree, and some declined the inheritance, their shares went by accretion to those who took.
1919 H. Bigelow Cases on Rights in Land ii. vii. 695 The reversioner takes the benefit arising from an accretion of the fund.
a1960 H. Lauterpacht Internat. Law (1970) I. ii. x. 377 It is enough to survey the various modes of original acquisition of territory, from discovery and prescription to the minor instances of alluvion and accretion.
2000 T. R. Van Dervort Amer. Law (ed. 2) v. 100 Accretion refers to natural increase and would include the accretion of the value of a savings account by accruing interest or the increase in livestock because of offspring produced.
Compounds
accretion disc n. Astronomy a rotating disc of gas and dust formed by accretion around a massive body (such as a black hole or neutron star), under the influence of gravity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > star > [noun] > disc around
accretion disc1972
1972 Astron. & Astrophysics 21 1 It is emphasized that accretion discs can display a wide range of properties (depending on the accretion rate, viscosity, etc.).
1990 W. R. Peltier in C. Mungall & D. J. 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.
2003 J. Scalzi Rough Guide to Universe xiv. 200 As the gas and dust accumulates, it rotates around the black hole forming an accretion disc.
accretion rate n. a rate at which accretion occurs; esp. (Astronomy) the rate of the accretion of matter by a celestial object, under the influence of gravity.
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1883 Trans. Med. & Physical Soc. Bombay 3 14 If the accretion-rate of new cases exceed the death-rate of home-dwellers, then disease is on the increase.
1957 Times 11 June 9/7 Those broads..receive a proportion of river silt, and this may add to the rate of infilling of the basins. Comparative studies of accretion rates should yield much valuable information.
2011 M. S. Longair High Energy Astrophysics (ed. 3) xix. 634 It might seem that the black hole mass could grow arbitrarily rapidly, but this is not the case because the accretion rate is limited by the radiation pressure associated with the luminosity L.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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