accrue

WOTD - 10 October 2008    

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

French accrû, past participle of accroître, from Old French acreü, past participle of acroistre (“to increase”); from Latin adcrēscō (“increase”), from ad- (“to”) + crēscō (“grow”). Compare accretion, accresce, accrete, crew, crescent.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /əˈkɹuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -uː

Verb

accrue (third-person singular simple present accrues, present participle accruing, simple past and past participle accrued)

1. To increase, to augment; to come to by way of increase; to arise or spring as a growth or result; to be added as increase, profit, or damage, especially as the produce of money lent.

   • And though power failed, her courage did accrue - Edmund Spenser
   • Interest accrues to principal - Abbott
   • The great and essential advantages accruing to society from the freedom of the press - Junius

2. (accounting) To be incurred as a result of the passage of time.

   The monthly financial statements show all the actual but only some of the accrued expenses.

Antonyms

• (accounting): amortize

Translations

increase

Danish: opsamle (da), indsamle (da), tilfalde (da), påløbe (da) Dutch: verhogen (nl), groeien (nl) Finnish: kasvaa (fi) French: accroître (fr) Frisian: krije, groeien German: anfallen

Interlingua: accrescer, aAccumular Italian: accrescersi (it) Portuguese: acrescer (pt), acumular (pt) Spanish: acumularse (es), aumentarse (es) Swedish: öka (sv), växa till (sv)

Noun

accrue (plural accrues)

1. (obsolete) Something that accrues; advantage accruing