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Accost

//əˈkɔst// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Address; greeting. rare

    "A man does not seize a woman by the sleeve and ask, "Is it you?" without some reason for an address so destitute of ordinary courtesy; and Lucilla was sufficiently versed in such matters to know that so rude and startling an accost could be only addressed to some one whose presence set the speaker's heart beating, and quickened the blood in his veins."

  2. 2
    An attack.

    "At last, when I was already within reach of her, I stopped. Words were denied me; if I advanced I could but clasp her to my heart in silence; and all that was sane in me, all that was still unconquered, revolted against the thought of such an accost."

Verb
  1. 1
    To approach and speak to boldly or aggressively, as with a demand or request. transitive

    "A beggar accosted me as soon as I stepped outside."

  2. 2
    approach with an offer of sexual favors wordnet
  3. 3
    To join side to side; to border. obsolete, transitive
  4. 4
    speak to someone wordnet
  5. 5
    To sail along the coast or side of. broadly, obsolete, transitive
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    To approach; to come up to. obsolete, transitive

    "You mistake, knight. ‘Accost’ is front / her, board her, woo her, assail her."

  2. 7
    To speak to first; to address; to greet. transitive

    "Him, Satan thus accosts."

  3. 8
    To adjoin; to lie alongside. intransitive, obsolete

    "For all the Shores, which to the Sea accost"

  4. 9
    To assault. transitive

    "The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991."

  5. 10
    To solicit sexually. transitive

    "Gladstone's initial tone of disinterested philanthropy also characterized his first encounters with prostitutes in London once he has moved there to undertake his parliamentary duties. Accosted in a London park in 1837 by two women, Gladstone merely reported of them that "both ... had taken to their miserable calling from losing their livelihood by the death of their husbands.""

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle French accoster, acoster, from Old French acoster (“to stand beside”) (whence Medieval Latin accostare), from Old French a- + coste (“side, flank”).

Etymology 2

From Middle French accoster, acoster, from Old French acoster (“to stand beside”) (whence Medieval Latin accostare), from Old French a- + coste (“side, flank”).

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