Forms: 4 acces; 4–7 accesse; 5– access; and in the special sense IV: 4 axcesse, axcess; 5 axces, axesse, axez, aksis; 5–6 axes, axis; 6 axys, acceys. [In sense IV. the earliest in Eng., a. Fr. accès, OFr. aces, aceis:—L. accēss-us, a coming unto, vbl. sb. f. accēd-ĕre to come to: see ACCEDE. In this sense the word soon received the Eng. accent a·ccess, whence the spellings axes, axis, etc., above. In its more general senses app. taken direct from L. accēss-us chiefly after 1500, and retaining the pronunc. acce·ss in all the poets of 6–8; but a·ccess is given by Sheridan, 1789, rejected by Smart, 1857, used by Tennyson, 1864, and is now apparently the more usual, as more distinct from excess. Cf. rece·ss, succe·ss; a·bscess, pro·cess. Like variety of usage prevails as to access-ary, -ory, and their derivatives, though in these it is more common to accent the first syllable.]
I. Coming to or towards; approaching.
† 1. The action of going or coming to or into; coming into the presence of, or into contact with; approach, entrance. (Const. into, unto, to.) Obs.
1528. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. Ref., I. xlvii. 90. How to use and order ourself at our access to the pope’s presence.
1682. Grew, Anat. Plants, 10. Lest its new access into the ayr should shrivel it.
1699. Garth, Dispensary, I. (1706), 2. The Goddess … shuns the great access of vulgar eyes.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XIV. 195. Safe from access of each intruding power.
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. 138. He kept an honourable post here: and had great access of gentlemen to him.
2. The habit or power of getting near or into contact with; entrance, admittance, admission (to the presence or use of).
1382. Wyclif, Rom. v. 2. By whom we han accesse, or nyȝ goynge to.
1534. Polyd. Verg., Eng. Hist. (1846), I. 23. Thus crowse have free accesse to these highe trees.
1579. Gosson, Sch. of Abuse (Arb.), 39. How many times hath accesse to Theaters beene restrayned.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. i. 98. He is heere at the doore, and importunes accesse to you.
1772–84. Cook, Voyages (1790), IV. 1192. These voyages have facilitated the access of ships into the Pacific Ocean.
1864. Tennyson, Aylm. F., 503. Those at home … Then closed her access to the wealthier farms.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. viii. 180. Some office which … gave him close access to the person of his princely nephew.
1879. Lubbock, Sc. Lect., xi. 39. This prevents the access of ants and other small creeping insects.
3. The state or faculty of being approached; accessibility.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., V. iii. 21. He gret repayre amang þaim mád; Be sic access he kend wele.
1559. Myrroure for Mag. (ed. 2), xiii. 1. Disdayne not prynces easye accesse.
1662. Gerbier, Princ., 13. The Staires … are … of so easie an Accesse, as that Travellers do ascend them on Horse-back.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), I. 244. He insisted on Lord Chesterfield’s general affability and easiness of access.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 89. Markets are so difficult of access, that much wealth is wasted.
4. The action of coming towards, coming, approach, advance. Contrasted with recess.
1610. Healey, Aug. City of God (1620), V. vi. 193. We see the alteration of the year by the Sunnes accesse and departure.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. of Earth (1723), VI. 279. The Sea, by this Access and Recess, shuffling the empty Shells.
1843. J. Martineau, Endeav. after Chr. Life (1876), 506. The Rainbow interpreted by the prism … painting the access and recess of his thought.
† 5. A coming to work or business, an assembling or meeting of a body. The access and recess of Parliament. Obs.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1584/1. A briefe report of the second accesse … and of the answer made in the name of the lords of the parlement.
1647. May, Hist. Parl., II. i. 3. Before the Accesse and meeting again of the Parliament.
† 6. A coming to office, dignity, or sovereignty; arrival at the throne; = ACCESSION 3. Obs.
1641. Charles I., Lett. to Judges, 5 July, 3. Our Accesse to the Crowne.
1650. J. Hall, Paradoxes, 25. Many Princes have sweetened and disguised the memory of their accesse to Government.
1759. Martin, Nat. Hist., I. 247. Their first Access to their Dignity.
II. A way or means of approach.
7. An entrance, channel, passage, or doorway.
1642. Howell, For. Trav., 14. They … have not those obvious accesses and contiguity of situation.
1670. Milton, Hist. Brit., II. Wks. 1847, 484. The Accesses of the Island were wondrously fortify’d.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, VIII. 51. Now all accesses to the dome are fill’d.
1831. Scott, Anne of Gei., ii. 25. If there be actually such a pass, there must be an access to it somewhere.
b. fig.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn. (1640), Pref. 17. We doe heere, in the Accesse to this work, Poure forth humblest and most ardent supplications to God.
1720. Rowe, Amb. Step-Mother, Prol. 7. The Poet does his Art employ, The soft Accesses of your Souls to try.
1878. R. W. Dale, On Preaching, vii. 216. We ought to try … every possible access to the conscience.
III. A coming as an addition.
8. The coming of anything as an addition; adherence, addition, increase, growth. Now almost obs. and replaced by ACCESSION.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 272. The death of this one man [Becket] … brought thereunto more accesse of estimation and reverence.
1610. Gwillim, Displ. Herald. (1660), III. xxvi. 258. They had in them neither accesse nor defect.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 310. I from the influence of thy looks receive Access in every virtue.
1728. Newton, Chronol. Amended, 10. The Philistims, strengthned by the access of the Shepherds, conquer Israel.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., ix. 261. The liquid mass of rock is always ready to be poured out upon the access of adequate pressure.
1881. Broadhouse, Mus. Acoustics, 270. Their varying rates bring about, at regular intervals, an access of tone, when the crests of the waves correspond, and a diminution of tone when the crest of one coincides with the trough of the other.
IV. A coming on or attack of illness, anger, etc.
9. A coming on of illness or disease, especially of sudden illness; an attack or fit.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. Poems, C. 325. Þacces of anguych watȝ hid in my sawle.
1423. James I, King’s Quair, II. xlviii. Bot tho began myn axis and turment.
a. 1597. ‘Chaucer’s Dreme,’ Wks. 1855, 56. The peyne, and the plesaunce, Which was to me axes and hele.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Phys., 139. Let meat be given at the time of the least accesse.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, III. ii. 822. Relapses make Diseases More desp’rate than their first Accesses.
1748. Hartley, Observ. on Man, I. i. § 1. 7. 55. In the Access of most Fevers the Patient is listless & sleepy.
1821. G. Ticknor, Life, Lett. & Journ., I. xvii. 334. He had had an access of paralysis the afternoon previous.
1862. Trench, Miracles, xxvii. 368. These accesses of his disorder might come upon him at any moment.
† 10. spec. An ague fit; ague, intermitting fever. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1316. A charme … The whiche can helen the of thyn accesse.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R. (1495), VII. xxxviii. 252. Fyrste the cold and therafter the heete and euery daye axes, yet worse, for some daye comith double axes.
1459. Paston Lett., 970, III. 426. I was falle seek with an axeȝ.
1475. Audelay, Poems, 47. A seke man, That is y-schakyd and schent with the aksis.
1493. Petronylla, 45. And Petronilla quaketh in hir accesse.
a. 1500. Lancelot of the Laik (1865), 2. So be the morow set I was a-fyre In felinge of the access hot and colde.
1527. L. Andrew, trans. Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, A ij. The same water … is good for the dayly axces or febres.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Ague, The cure [of Ague] is usually begun with an emetic of ipecacuanha, an hour before the access.
11. fig. An outburst; a sudden fit of anger or other passion. (Modern, after Fr. accès.)
1781. J. Moore, Italy (1790), II. lxi. 214. These accesses and intervals [of thunder and explosion] continued with varied force.
1815. Southey, in Q. Rev., XIII. 10. In a fresh access of jealousy, [he] plunged a dagger into her heart.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 56. He gave him [his brother] over, in an access of sublime patriotism, to the death he had deserved.
¶ Access is frequently found written for EXCESS, chiefly by phonetic confusion; but the senses also approach in 8 above; see quot. of date 1610.
