accrue

First attested in mid 15th century. From Middle English acrewen, borrowed from Old French acreüe, past participle of accreistre (“to increase”), from Latin accrēsco (“increase”), from ad (“in addition”) + crēscō (“to grow”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈkɹuː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈkɹu/

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  Rhymes: -uː

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

1. (intransitive) To increase, to rise
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     And though pow’r fail’d, her Courage did accrue

2. (intransitive) To reach or come to by way of increase; to arise or spring up because of growth or result, especially as the produce of money lent.
   • 1879, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Dictionary of Terms and Phrases used in American or English Jurisprudence: ACCRUE

     Interest accrues to principal.

   • 1772, Junius, The Letters of Junius, Preface

     The great and essential advantages accruing to society from the freedom of the press

3. (intransitive, 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.

4. (transitive) To accumulate.

   He has accrued nine sick days.

   • 1709, John Dryden, "Lucretius: A Poem against the Fear of Death" (lines 26-29), published in a pamphlet of the same name with an Ode in Memory of Mrs. Ann Killebrew:

     We, who are dead and gone, shall bear no Part,

     In all the Pleasures, no shall we feel the smart,

     Which to that other Mortal shall accrew,

     Whom of our Matter Time shall mould anew.

5. (intransitive, law) To become an enforceable and permanent right.

• (increase): rise; see also Thesaurus:increase
• (accumulate): add up; see also Thesaurus:accumulate

• (antonym(s) of “accounting”): amortize, defer, prepay

• accretion
• accresce
• accrete
• crescent

accrue (plural accrues)

1. (obsolete) Something that accrues; advantage accruing

• “accrue”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “accrue”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /a.kʁy/

accrue f (plural accrues)

1. dry land created by draining

accrue f sg

1. feminine singular of accru

• “accrue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.