accost
Syllables: ac·cost/əˈkɔst/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
cot caught merger/əˈkɑst/
accost verb: to approach and speak to boldly or aggressively, as with a demand or request.
Verb
accost (third-person singular simple present accosts, present participle accosting, simple past and past participle accosted)
- To approach and speak to boldly or aggressively, as with a demand or request.
- A beggar accosted me as soon as I stepped outside.
- To join side to side; to border.
- To sail along the coast or side of.
- To approach; to come up to.
- You mistake, knight. ‘Accost’ is front / her, board her, woo her, assail her.c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 1, scene 3, lines 53–54
- To speak to first; to address; to greet.
- Him, Satan thus accosts.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost, line 653
- She approached the basin, and bent over it as if to fill her pitcher; she again lifted it to her head. The personage on the well-brink now seemed to accost her; to make some request—"She hasted, let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink."1847, Charlotte Bronte, chapter XVIII, in Jane Eyre
- To adjoin; to lie alongside.
- For all the Shores, which to the Sea accost1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene, canto 2, stanza XLII
- Lapland hath since been often surrounded (so much as accosts the sea) by the English.1662, Thomas Fuller, “Derby-shire”, in History of the Worthies of England
- To assault.
- The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991.2012 August 21, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian
- Surveillance video of the incident shows the man and woman being accosted by a man armed with and assault-style handgun.2017 June 21, Glenn E. Rice, “Police seek two gunmen who accosted Kansas City couple”, in The Kansas City Star
- To solicit sexually.
- Gladstone's initial tone of disinterested philanthropy also characterized his first encounters with prostitutes in London once he has moved there to undertake his parliamentary duties. Accosted in a London park in 1837 by two women, Gladstone merely reported of them that "both ... had taken to...1997, Travis L. Crosby, The Two Mr. Gladstones
Noun
accost (plural accosts)
- Address; greeting.
- A man does not seize a woman by the sleeve and ask, "Is it you?" without some reason for an address so destitute of ordinary courtesy; and Lucilla was sufficiently versed in such matters to know that so rude and startling an accost could be only addressed to some one whose presence set the...1866, Margaret Oliphant, chapter XXIII, in Miss Marjoribanks (Chronicles of Carlingford)
- Anne liked to accost foreigners in their own tongue , but , being ignorant of Spanish , asked M. de Grignaux to teach her a sentence of polite accost in his own language, wherewith to welcome an ambassador from Spain.1871, Henry Morley, Clement Marot
- An attack.
- At last, when I was already within reach of her, I stopped. Words were denied me; if I advanced I could but clasp her to my heart in silence; and all that was sane in me, all that was still unconquered, revolted against the thought of such an accost.1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Olalla”, in The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables
accost meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
accost in Tamil
- திறப்புச்சொல், கைகூப்புரை, வணக்கமொழி, அழைப்பு, முதலில் சந்தித்துப் பேசு, அணுகி அழை
accost in Urdu
- خطاب, خطاب کرنا
accost in Bengali
- প্রথমে সম্ভাষণ করা, অগ্রসর হইয়া কথা বলা
accost in Malayalam
- ഒരാളെ സമീപിച്ച് സംഭാഷണം തുടങ്ങുക, തടഞ്ഞു നിർത്തി സംസാരിക്കുക, അടുത്തുകൂടുക
More languagesFewer languages
- accost in Kannada
- ಬಳಿಸಾರು, ಗುರುತಿಸಿ ಮಾತಾಡು, ಹತ್ತಿರಕ್ಕೆ ಕರೆ
Examples of accost in a sentence
- I quickly followed suit, and descending into the bar-room accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 5, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London...
- Accosted in a London park in 1837 by two women, Gladstone merely reported of them that "both ... had taken to their miserable calling from losing their livelihood by the death of their husbands."1997, Travis L. Crosby, The Two Mr. Gladstones:
Synonyms of accost
Forms of accost
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | accosts |
| present participle | accosting |
| past participle | accosted |
| past | accosted |
| Noun | |
| plural | accosts |
Origin of accost
From Middle French accoster, acoster, from Old French acoster (“to stand beside”) (whence Medieval Latin accostare), from Old French a- + coste (“side, flank”).
Words formed from accost
Words that rhyme with accost
4 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about accost
- What does accost mean?
- Accost means to approach and speak to boldly or aggressively, as with a demand or request.
- What is accost in Tamil?
- Accost in Tamil is திறப்புச்சொல், கைகூப்புரை, வணக்கமொழி. See Accost meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use accost in a sentence?
- I quickly followed suit, and descending into the bar-room accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly.
- What part of speech is accost?
- Accost can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce accost?
- Accost is pronounced /əˈkɔst/ (US).
- What is the past tense of accost?
- The past tense of accost is accosted.
Words near accost in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: accost (page history and authors); accost (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accost (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accost (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accost (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accost (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-accost.ogg.
Cite this entry: “accost.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/accost. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.