ACCRE'TION, n. [Lat. accretio, increase; accres'co, to increase, literally, to grow to; ad and cresco; Eng. accrue; See Increase, Accrue, Grow.] 1. A growing to; an increase by natural growth; applied to the increase of organic bodies by the accession of parts.Plants have an accretion, but no alimentation.2. In the civil law, the adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; as, when a legacy is left to two persons, and one of them dies before the testator, the legacy devolves to the survivor by right of accretion.
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