Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Accretion?

\Ac*cre"tion\, n. [L. accretio, fr. accrescere to increase. Cf. {Crescent}, {Increase}, {Accrue}.] 1. The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth. --Arbuthnot. 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 grown, but by accretion. --Owen. To strip off all the subordinate parts of his as a later accretion. --Sir G. C. Lewis. 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 toes. --Dana. 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 sail 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, failure of a coheir to the same succession, or a co-legatee of the same thing, to take his share. --Wharton. Kent.