01 n. The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
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1.
The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
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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 growth, but by accretion.” — Owen.“To strip off all the subordinate parts of his narrative as a later accretion.” — Sir G. C. Lewis.
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3.
Concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.
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4.
A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
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5.
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 soil from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.(Law)