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accrete

[ uh-kreet ]

verb (used without object)

, ac·cret·ed, ac·cret·ing.
  1. to grow together; adhere (usually followed by to ).


verb (used with object)

, ac·cret·ed, ac·cret·ing.
  1. to add, as by growth.

adjective

  1. Botany. grown together.

accrete

/ əˈkriːt /

verb

  1. to grow or cause to grow together; be or become fused
  2. to make or become bigger, as by addition
“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


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Word History and Origins

Origin of accrete1

First recorded in 1775–85; back formation from accretion
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Word History and Origins

Origin of accrete1

C18: back formation from accretion
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Example Sentences

When multiple traumas occur ­together, they layer atop one another and accrete under pressure.

As the planet accreted additional mass, the proportion of gas rose.

If antistars existed within the plane of the Milky Way, where they could accrete lots of gas and dust made of ordinary matter, they could emit lots of gamma rays and be easy to spot.

If, on the other hand, antistars tended to exist outside the plane of the galaxy, they would have much less opportunity to accrete normal matter and be much harder to find.

No one has ever applied a single decent piece of cost-to-benefit analysis to any of this stuff, and they just accrete over time.

It will leave the ACA intact, as is, to accrete interest group support until reform becomes all-but-impossible.

Why should trifles accrete to an ancient and hideous memory until it became a corporeal, living, malignant thing?

And as I continued to do this these fantasias began to accrete more and more about the figure of Derwent Rose.

The result of our education is to fill the mind little by little, as experiences accrete, with a stock of such ideas.

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