Legal Dictionary

accretion

Legal Definition of accretion

Noun

The imperceptible and gradual addition to land by the slow action of water. Heavy rain, ocean or river action would have this effect by either a permanent retreat of the high water mark or by washing up sand or soil. The washing up of soil is often called avulsion although the latter term is but a variety of accretion.

Etymology

accretio

accrescere

Pronunciation

Noun

accretion (plural accretions)

The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth.

A mineral ... augments not by grown, but by accretion.
To strip off all the subordinate parts of his as a later accretion - George Cornewall Lewis
concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.
A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
(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.
(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.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

References

accretion in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

References:

Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.