Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AC-COUNT'A-BLY, adv.

In an accountable manner.

AC-COUNT'ANT, n.

One skilled in mercantile accounts; more generally, a person who keeps accounts; an officer in a public office who has charge of the accounts. In Great Britain, an officer in the court of Chancery, who receives money and pays it to the Bank, is called accountant-general.

AC-COUNT'-BOOK, n.

A book in which accounts are kept. Swift.

AC-COUNT'ED, pp.

Esteemed; deemed; considered; regarded; valued. Accounted for, explained.

AC-COUNT'ING, n.

The act of reckoning or adjusting accounts.

AC-COUNT'ING, ppr.

Deeming; esteeming; reckoning; rendering an account. Accounting for, rendering an account; assigning the reasons; unfolding the causes.

AC-COUP'LE, v.t. [accup'ple.]

To couple; to join or link together. [See Couple.]

AC-COUP'LE-MENT, n. [accup'plement.]

A coupling; a connecting in pairs; junction. [Little used.]

AC-COUR'AGE, v.t. [accur'age; See Courage.]

To encourage. [Not used.] Spenser.

AC-COURT', v.t. [See Court.]

To entertain with courtesy. [Not used.] Spenser.

AC-COUT'ER, v.t. [accoot'er. Fr. accoutrer; contracted from accoustrer, from Norm. coste, a coat, coster, a rich cloth or vestment for festivals. I think this to be the true origin of the word, rather than coudre, couture, couturier.]

In a general sense, to dress; to equip; but appropriately, to array in a military dress; to put on, or to furnish with a military dress and arms; to equip the body for military service.

AC-COUT'ER-ED, pp.

Dressed in arms; equipped. Beattie.

AC-COUT'ER-ING, ppr.

Equipping with military habiliments.

AC-COUT'ER-MENTS, n. [plur.]

1. Dress; equipage; furniture for the body; appropriately, military dress and arms; equipage for military service.
2. In common usage, an old or unusual dress.

AC-COY', v.t. [old Fr. accoisir.]

To render quiet or diffident; to soothe; to caress. [Obs.] Spenser.

AC-CRED'IT, v.t. [Fr. accrediter; Sp. acreditar; It. accreditare; to give authority or reputation; from L. ad and credo, to believe, or give faith to. See Credit.]

To give credit, authority, or reputation; to accredit an envoy, is to receive him in his public character, and give him credit and rank accordingly.

AC-CRED-IT-A'TION, n.

That which gives title to credit. [Little used.]

AC-CRED'IT-ED, pp.

Allowed; received with reputation; authorized in a public character. Christ. Obs.

AC-CRED'IT-ING, ppr.

Giving authority or reputation.

AC-CRES'CENT, a. [See Accretion.]

Increasing. Shuckford.

AC-CRE'TION, n. [Lat. accretio, increase; accres'co, to increase, literally, to grow to; ad and cresco; Eng. accrue; Fr. accroitre. See Increase, Accrue, Grow.]

1. A growing to; an increase by natural growth; applied to the increase of organic bodies by the accession of parts. Plants have an accretion but no alimentation. Bacon.
2. In the civil law, the adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; as, when a legacy is left to two persons, and one of them dies before the testator, the legacy devolves to the survivor by right of accretion. Encyc.

AC-CRE'TIVE, a.

Increasing by growth; growing; adding to by growth; as the accretive motion of plants.

AC-CROACH', v.i. [Fr. accrocher, to fix on a hook; from croc, crochet, a hook, from the same elements as crook, which see.]

1. To hook, or draw to, as with a hook; but in this sense not used.
2. To encroach; to draw away from another. Hence in old laws to assume the exercise of royal prerogatives. Blackstone. The noun accroachment, an encroachment, or attempt to exercise royal power, is rarely or never used. [See Encroach.]

AC-CRUE', n. [accru'.]

Something that accedes to, or follows the property of another. [Obs.]

AC-CRUE', v.i. [accru'; Fr. accroitre, accru, to increase; L. accresco, cresco; Sp. crecer and acrecer; It. crescere, accrescere; Port. crecer; Arm. crisqi.]

Literally, to grow to; hence to arise, proceed or come; to be added, as increase, profit or damage; as, a profit accrues to government from the coinage of copper; a loss accrues from the coinage of gold and silver.