[f. (as if through Fr.) on late L. accrēscentia, n. of quality f. accrēscent-em pr. pple. of accrēsc-ĕre; see prec. and -NCE.]
1. The process of growing continuously, continuous growth.
1816. Coleridge, Statesm Man., Wks. 1839, I. App. E. 296. The silent accrescence of belief from the unwatched depositions of a general, never-contradicted hearsay.
2. Something that grows on a thing from without; an accretion.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., XVII. § 6. The primitive Christians … when they had washed off the accrescences of Gentile superstition, they chose such rites which their neighbours used.
c. 1819. Coleridge, in Rem. (1836), II. 220. This accrescence of objectivity in a ghost that yet retains all its ghostly attributes and fearful subjectivity is truly wonderful.
