encroachment

Noun

encroachment (usually uncountable, plural encroachments)

1. (usually) An entry into a place or area that was previously uncommon; an advance beyond former borders; intrusion; incursion.
   • At the same time, the encroachment of vegetation proceeds apace, and broom and brambles have already made portions of the line impassable, even on foot.1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 408
   • […] the largest extents of encroachments were found in the Dry Zone Districts, such as Anuradhapura, Kurunegala and Moneragala, where encroachable State lands were readily available (Table I). […] Between 1979-1985, some 104,490 new encroachments covering an extent of 70,646 Ha (174,566 acres) took...1990, Quest, numbers 105-106, Centre for Society and Religion, pages 56-57
2. (usually) An intrusion upon another's possessions or rights; infringement.
   • The Legislative department derives a superiority in our Governments from other circumstances. Its constitutional powers being at once more extensive, and less susceptible of precise limits, it can, with the greater facility, mask, under complicated and indirect measures, the encroachments which it...1788, Publius [pseudonym; James Madison], “Number XXXXVII”, in The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, […] , volume II, New York, N.Y.: […] J. and A....
   • Ah! my brother, we do well to watch our birthright jealously; the least invasion on the meanest peasant, the slightest encroachment of the powerful, are not matters to be neglected—such are the first steps of tyranny.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 53–54
3. (usually) That which is gained by such unlawful intrusion.
4. (usually) An unlawful diminution of the possessions of another.