Obs.; also 6–7 accrewe. [a. Fr. accrue, OFr. acreue, acrewe growth, increase, orig. pa. pple. of ac-croître, OFr. acreistre:—L. accrēscĕre: see ACCREASE.]
1. Accession, reinforcement. (Cf. CREW.)
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1135/1. The towne of Calis and the forts thereabouts were not supplied with anie new accrewes of soldiors.
1630. M. Godwyn, Annals Eng., III. 283. Should be able … to oppose the French by the accrue of Scotland.
1641. Pref. to Cheke’s Hurt of Sedition, c 2. This accrue of honour to her sonne made his learned mother the Vniversity a suiter to him.
2. Advantage accruing.
1625. Sir H. Finch, Law, To Reader (1636). Witnesse the very phrase, the termes of Art, excluding all hope of accrue to Lay-conceited opinions.
3. A stitch increasing the size of network.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Casting-net, As you work, cast some Accrues from six Meshes to six Meshes, even to the second Range from the Lever, and make the third without Accrues; then cast the Accrues again to the fourth Range, and work the fifth without Accrues, and do so by all the rest, until the Net is eight or nine Foot in Heighth.
