accretion

Noun

accretion (countable and uncountable, plural accretions)

1. (also, figuratively, uncountable) Increase by natural growth, especially the gradual increase of organic bodies by the internal addition of matter; organic growth; also, the amount of such growth.
   • Warwick was unable to perceive much change in the market-house. […] There might have been a slight accretion of the moss and lichen on the shingled roof.1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 3
   • The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon.1920, Edith Wharton, chapter IV, in The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, book I, page 25

   Synonyms:

   accrescence

   Antonyms:

   nonaccretion

2. (uncountable) (Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter; (countable) an instance of this.
   • Near-synonym: accumulation
   • A mineral augments not by growth, but by accretion.

   Synonyms:

   accrescence, accumulation

   Antonyms:

   nonaccretion

   1. The process by which material is added to a geological feature; specifically, to a tectonic plate at a subduction zone.
3. (also, figuratively, uncountable) Followed by of: external addition of matter to a thing which causes it to grow, especially in amount or size.
   • [W]hile ſome fevv grevv rich by turning Money in their ovvn Banks, there vvas a falſe Appearance of VVealth vvithin, but no Accretion of Riches from abroad.1713 October 18 (Gregorian calendar), Richard Steele, “October 8. [1713].”, in The Englishman: Being the Sequel of the Guardian, collected edition, number 2, London: […] Sam[uel] Buckley […]...
4. (uncountable) The process of separate particles aggregating or coalescing together; concretion; (countable) a thing formed in this manner.
   • The accretion of particles forms a solid mass.
   • [T]he vvhole Country of Holland ſeems to be an Accretion partly by the Sea, partly by the River Rhine.a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “The Sixth Evidence of Fact Proving Novitatem Generis Humani, Namely, the History of the Patres Familiarum, and the Original Plantation of the Continents and...
   1. The formation of planets, stars, and other celestial bodies by the aggregating of matter drawn together by gravity; also, the growth of a celestial body through this process.
      • This theory, known as pebble accretion, is reshaping how scientists think about the early solar system. […] "In many ways, pebble accretion is the most efficient way of adding mass to a body," says Lambrechts.2018 April 26, Alexandra Witze, “Earth may have been Formed by a Bunch of Tiny Space Pebbles”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC...
5. (countable, figuratively) Something gradually added to or growing on a thing externally.
   • accretion of ice
   • [T]hoſe places, vvhich vvere formerly filled vvith VVood, have buried the fallen Trees three, four, or five foot deep in the ground, by an accretion or cover of Earth, derived to them ſometimes by Alluvions or Floods, […]a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “A Brief Consideration of the Hypotheses that Concern the Eternity of the World”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to...
   1. (figuratively) A substance which has built up on the surface of an object, rather than become embedded in it.
      • Accretions of dirt on clothing are often left in place by conservators because they can provide additional details about the artefact’s importance or history.
      • Pure Lust is a double-edged analysis of the evolution of feminist spiritual system. In Pure Lust Daly attempts to pare away the accretions of patriarchal ideology and reveal the fundamental elements of emerging feminist philosophy.1985 February 2, Sandra Karp, “Making Female Experience Sacred”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 12
6. (uncountable) Increase in property by the addition of other property to it (for example, gain of land by alluvion (“the deposition of sediment by a river or sea”) or dereliction (“recession of water from the usual watermark”), or entitlement to the products of the property such as interest on money); or by the property owner acquiring another person’s ownership rights; accession; (countable) an instance of this.

   Synonyms:

   accrual, accruer

7. (uncountable, inheritance law) Increase of an inheritance to an heir or legatee due to the share of a co-heir or co-legatee being added to it, because the latter person is legally unable to inherit the share.