vbl. sb. [f. prec. + -ING1.] (Now mostly gerundial.)
1. The act of drawing to oneself.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, III. xix. 91 a (1554). Their accroching of temporal riches Whan thei be tirantes.
2. The seizing or usurping of sovereign power.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 76. The accroaching, or attempting to exercise, royal power (a very uncertain charge) was in the 21 Edw. III. held to be treason in a knight of Hertfordshire, who forcibly assaulted and detained one of the king’s subjects till he paid him 90l.
1874. Curtis, Hist. Eng., 126. They had been guilty of accroaching to themselves the royal authority.
