accrete
/əˈkriːt
/verb [no object]
1Grow by accumulation or coalescence: ice that had accreted grotesquely into stalactites...
- Online, audiences or communities don't necessarily build so much as grow or accrete.
- One process is accretion under water - ‘the idea that grains on the sea floor or in living water roll around and sometimes they accrete or grow by adding layers of material,’ explained McSween.
- There may have been an additional body of work, but this was secondary to the text-representation of yourself that accreted, word by word, as a result of your participation.
1.1 [with object] Form (a composite whole) by gradual accumulation: the collection of art he had accreted was to be sold...
- How is it possible that now, and in the next few months, his little brain accretes cells at the mind-blowing rate of 250 000 a minute?
- Although the sedimentary rocks of the LeMay Group are generally regarded as having been accreted, this has only been demonstrated at a few localities.
- Batman is a thought form dreamt up by Bob Kane, which has accreted beliefs and views over the decades to become the Batman we know today, independent of the original.
1.2 Astronomy (With reference to matter or a body) come or bring together under the influence of gravitation: [no object]: the gas will cool and then accrete to the galaxy’s core...
- When the giant Jupiter was formed 4.6 billion years ago, its enormous gravity cleared the region around it from most of the rocky debris that would normally accrete to form a planet.
- Planet cores and terrestrial rocky planets would accrete from the planetesimals.
- Theory predicts that these disks accrete onto the holes because of friction.
Origin
Late 18th century: from Latin accret- 'grown', from the verb accrescere, from ad- 'to' + crescere 'grow'.