accretion

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Growth or increase in size by gradual external addition, fusion, or inclusion.
2. n. Something contributing to such growth or increase: "the accretions of paint that had buried the door's details like snow” ( Christopher Andreae).
3. n. Biology The growing together or adherence of parts that are normally separate.
4. n. Geology Slow addition to land by deposition of water-borne sediment.
5. n. Geology An increase of land along the shores of a body of water, as by alluvial deposit.
6. n. Astronomy An increase in the mass of a celestial object by the collection of surrounding interstellar gases and objects by gravity.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of accreting or accrescing; a growing to; an increase by natural growth; an addition; specifically, an increase by an accession of parts externally.
2. n. In pathology, the growing together of parts normally separate, as the fingers or toes.
3. n. The thing added; an extraneous addition; an accession: commonly used in the plural, and restricted to accessions made slowly and gradually by some external force.
4. n. In law: The increase or growth of property by external accessions, as by alluvium naturally added to land situated on the bank of a river, or on the seashore. When the accretion takes place by small and imperceptible degrees it belongs to the owner of the land immediately behind, but if it is sudden and considerable it may belong to the state.
5. n. In Scots law, the completion of an originally defective or imperfect right by some subsequent act on the part of the person from whom the right was derived.
6. n. In forestry, increase in diameter or height: distinguished from increment, increase in volume.
7. n. In petrol., a term proposed by Johnston-Lavis for a mass formed in solution by deposition about a nucleus, as in oölite, or upon the walls of a cavity. It stands in contrast to concretion, which is defined by the author named as a mechanical agglomeration about a nucleus.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of increasing by natural growth; especially the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
2. n. The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth.
3. n. Something added externally to promote growth the external growth of an item.
4. n. concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.
5. n. biology A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
6. n. geology The gradual increase of land by deposition of water-borne sediment.
7. n. law The adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or sail from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.
8. n. law Gain to an heir or legatee, failure of a coheir to the same succession, or a co-legatee of the same thing, to take his share.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
2. n. The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition.
3. n. Concretion; coherence of separate particles.
4. n. A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
5. n. The adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or soil from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.
6. n. Gain to an heir or legatee, by failure of a coheir to the same succession, or a co-legatee of the same thing, to take his share.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. something contributing to growth or increase
2. n. (biology) growth by addition as by the adhesion of parts or particles
3. n. (geology) an increase in land resulting from alluvial deposits or waterborne sediment
4. n. (astronomy) the formation of a celestial object by the effect of gravity pulling together surrounding objects and gases
5. n. (law) an increase in a beneficiary's share in an estate (as when a co-beneficiary dies or fails to meet some condition or rejects the inheritance)
6. n. an increase by natural growth or addition