Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AC-CRE'TION, n. [L. 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.