<B>accouter, </B>transitive verb, <B>-tered,</B> <B>-tering.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to furnish with clothing or equipment; equip; outfit; array, especially in military attire. <BR> <I>Ex. Knights were accoutered in armor.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accouterment">
<B>accouterment, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the process of accoutering or being accoutered. <BR><I>expr. <B>accouterments,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>a soldier's equipment with the exception of his weapons and clothing. A belt, blanket, and knapsack are parts of a soldier's accouterments. <DD><B> b. </B>personal equipment; clothes; outfit. </I> <I>Ex. This man from Paris was now so disguised by his leather accouterments ... that his closest friend might have passed by without recognizing him (Thomas Hardy).</I> </DL>
<B>accredit, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to give credit or authority to. <BR> <I>Ex. The president will accredit you as his representative.</I> (SYN) authorize. <DD><B> 2. </B>to send or provide with credentials. <BR> <I>Ex. An ambassador is accredited to a foreign country to represent his government there.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to recognize as coming up to an official standard. <DD><B> 4. </B>to accept as true; believe; trust. <BR> <I>Ex. My sister is always truthful and anything she says will be accredited.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>to consider as belonging or due (to a person); ascribe; attribute. <BR> <I>Ex. We accredit the invention of the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>accredit with,</B> </I>to give (a person) credit for (something); regard (a person) as having. <BR> <I>Ex. I accredited him with more sense than his silly behavior suggests.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accreditation">
<B>accreditation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(U.S.) recognition of a school, college, hospital, agency for social work, or the like, as coming up to an official standard. <BR> <I>Ex. There isa need for more uniform accreditation and certification standards (Daniel Tanner).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>credentials. <BR> <I>Ex. His staff announced routine receipt of accreditations for the new Ambassadors (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accredited">
<B>accredited, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>recognized as coming up to an official standard. <BR> <I>Ex. Some colleges will accept without examination the graduates of accredited high schools.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>worthy of acceptance, belief, or trust. <BR> <I>Ex. Einstein was an accredited authority in mathematics.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>provided with credentials. <BR> <I>Ex. an accredited diplomat.</I> </DL>
<B>accrete, </B>verb, <B>-creted,</B> <B>-creting,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> to grow together; adhere (to). <DD><I>v.t. </I> to add as by growth. <DD><I>adj. </I> (Botany.) grown together. </DL>
<A NAME="accretion">
<B>accretion, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a growing together of separate things. <BR> <I>Ex. A glacier is formed by the accretion of many particles of frozen packed snow.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an increase in size by natural growth or gradual external addition. <DD><B> 3. </B>a whole that results from such growths or additions. <DD><B> 4. </B>a thing added; addition. <DD><B> 5. </B>growth in size. <DD><B> 6. </B>(Law.) the increase in area of a piece of land, beach, etc., by the washing up of soil. </DL>
<A NAME="accretionary">
<B>accretionary, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> characterized or formed by accretion. <BR> <I>Ex. the debate [as to] whether the moon's rocks are volcanic or accretionary in origin (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accretiondisk">
<B>accretion disk</B> or <B>disc,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Astronomy.) a disk-shaped formation of gases or other interstellar matter around a black hole, neutron star, or other celestial body. <BR> <I>Ex. This formation, called an accretion disk, may be very important in some stellar birth sequences. In our own solar system ... the planets and asteroids formed from the accretion disk as the sun grew in the embryo core (Stephen P. Maran).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accretive">
<B>accretive, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or by accretion. <BR> <I>Ex. accretive growth.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accroach">
<B>accroach, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic.) to usurp. noun <B>accroachment.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="accrochage">
<B>accrochage, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>(Art.) a method or style of hanging up paintings. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Military.) a skirmish. <DD><B> 3. </B>(literally) a hooking. </DL>
<A NAME="accrual">
<B>accrual, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an accruing. <BR> <I>Ex. Money leftin a savings bank increases by the accrual of interest.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the amount accrued or accruing. </DL>
<A NAME="accrualbasis">
<B>accrual basis,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a method of accounts in which the expenses incurred and income earned for a particular period are shown, whether or not actual cash payments and receipts have been made or received during that period. </DL>
<A NAME="accrue">
<B>accrue, </B>verb, <B>-crued,</B> <B>-cruing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to come as a natural product or result. <BR> <I>Ex. Ability to think clearly will accrue to you from good habits of study.</I> (SYN) amass, accrete. <DD><B> 2. </B>to grow or arise as the product of money invested. <BR> <I>Ex. Interest begins to accrue when the loan is granted.</I> (SYN) accumulate. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to obtain or derive (from). <BR> <I>Ex. ... and denied that South Korea would accrue any benefits from Japan's growing industrial power (New York Times).</I> (SYN) collect, gather. </DL>
<A NAME="accruedexpense">
<B>accrued expense,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> expense incurred but not yet paid. </DL>
<A NAME="accruedincome">
<B>accrued income,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> income earned but not yet received. </DL>
<A NAME="accruedinterest">
<B>accrued interest,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> interest that has accumulated at a given time but has not yet been paid. </DL>
<B>accultural, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> involving or produced by acculturation. </DL>
<A NAME="acculturate">
<B>acculturate, </B>verb, <B>-ated,</B> <B>-ating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> to cause (an individual or a group) to adopt the culture or cultural elements of another group. <BR> <I>Ex. The Navajo would ... become "acculturated," that is learn the white man's ways (New York Times).</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> to become acculturated. </DL>
<A NAME="acculturation">
<B>acculturation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the adoption by an individual or a group of the culture patterns of another group; a process of social change caused by the interaction of significantly diverse cultures; cultural leveling or homogeneity. <BR> <I>Ex. About a third of this class is Italian, and a great many of the families are still in process of acculturation to American life (Robert W. White).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a child's conditioning to the patterns of a particular society. </DL>
<A NAME="acculturational">
<B>acculturational, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with acculturation. </DL>
<A NAME="acculturative">
<B>acculturative, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> associated with or leading to acculturation. <BR> <I>Ex. Not infrequently acculturative processes result in considerable social disturbances (Beals and Hoijer).</I> </DL>
<B>accumbency, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the state of being accumbent. </DL>
<A NAME="accumbent">
<B>accumbent, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Botany.) lying against something. <DD><B> 2. </B>reclining, as at a table. </DL>
<A NAME="accumulable">
<B>accumulable, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> that can be accumulated. </DL>
<A NAME="accumulate">
<B>accumulate, </B>verb, <B>-lated,</B> <B>-lating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> to collect little by little; amass; heap up by degrees. <BR> <I>Ex. He accumulated a fortune by hard work.</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> to grow into a heap by degrees; pile up; gather. <BR> <I>Ex. Dust and cobwebs had accumulated in the house while she was gone.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="accumulation">
<B>accumulation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>material collected; mass. <BR> <I>Ex. His accumulation of old papers filled three boxes.</I> (SYN) aggregation. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) a collecting together; amassing. <BR> <I>Ex. The accumulation of useful knowledge is one result of reading.</I> (SYN) amassment. <DD><B> 3. </B>growth by continuous additions, as the addition of interest to principal. (SYN) accrual, accretion. </DL>
<B>accumulator, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that accumulates. <DD><B> 2. </B>any of various devices that collect, store, or absorb energy: <DD><B> a. </B>(British.) a storage battery. <DD><B> b. </B>a cylinder or apparatus that serves to equalize pressure in a hydraulic system or to accumulate energy for intermittent use. <DD><B> c. </B>an elastic section in a chain or rope to prevent breaking under a sudden strain. <DD><B> 3. </B>a unit in a computer, totalizator, or the like, in which the totals or results of arithmetical operations are registered. </DL>
<A NAME="accuracy">
<B>accuracy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the state of being without errors or mistakes; exactness; correctness; precision. <BR> <I>Ex. Arithmetic problems must be solved with accuracy.</I> </DL>
