accessory
[ak-ses-uh-ree]
- a subordinate or supplementary part, object, or the like, used mainly for convenience, attractiveness, safety, etc., as a spotlight on an automobile or a lens cover on a camera.
- an article or set of articles of dress, as gloves, earrings, or a scarf, that adds completeness, convenience, attractiveness, etc., to one's basic outfit.
- Law.
- Also called accessory before the fact.a person who, though not present during the commission of a felony, is guilty of having aided and abetted another, who committed the felony.
- Also called accessory after the fact.a person who knowingly conceals or assists another who has committed a felony.Compare principal(def 9b).
- Anatomy. accessory nerve.
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- contributing to a general effect; supplementary; subsidiary.
- Law. giving aid as an accessory.
- Petrography. (of a mineral) being present in small amounts in a rock and having no bearing on the classification of the rock, as zircon in granite.
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Origin of accessory
Synonyms
See more synonyms for accessory on Thesaurus.com3. accomplice.
Synonym study
1. See addition.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for accessory
Contemporary Examples
A shift to the accessory position would have also caused the power steering to suddenly quit.
Adoption of the accessory has even spawned its own fashion subculture.
The accessory was easily lifted by a gust of wind and would regularly get entangled in the wheel spokes of carriages.
It is no longer primarily an accessory; it becomes something larger.
Unlike a phone, wearable technology is an add-on, an accessory, something that comes on top.
Historical Examples
It censured Mrs. McKee severely for having been, so to speak, and accessory after the fact.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
It is always more or less a question of "an accessory business."
The Sexual QuestionAugust Forel
The pages of history record its undoing and its accessory to crime.
The Mushroom, Edible and OtherwiseM. E. Hard
Don't you think your friend might be held an accessory after the fact to the death of the German?
Masterpieces of MysteryVarious
If Reid should fall, Mackenzie felt he would be an accessory to the crime.
The Flockmaster of Poison CreekGeorge W. Ogden
accessory
- a supplementary part or object, as of a car, appliance, etc
- (often plural) a small accompanying item of dress, esp of women's dress
- a person who incites someone to commit a crime or assists the perpetrator of a crime, either before or during its commission
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- supplementary; additional; subordinate
- assisting in or having knowledge of an act, esp a crime
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Word Origin
C17: from Late Latin accessōrius: see access
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for accessory
n.
also accessary, early 15c. as a legal term in the criminal sense of "one aiding in a crime;" also "that which is subordinate to something else," from Late Latin accessorius, from accessor, agent noun from accedere (see access (n.)). Attested from 1896 as "woman's smaller articles of dress," hence accessorize.
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adj.
1550s, "subordinate," from Late Latin accessorius, from accessor, agent noun from accedere (see access (n.)). Meaning "aiding in crime" is from c.1600.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
accessory
(ăk-sĕs′ə-rē)- Having a secondary, supplementary, or subordinate function.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.