Definition of "accrete"

accrete

/əˈkɹiːt/

verb
third-person singular simple present accretes, present participle accreting, simple past and past participle accreted
1. (intransitive) To grow together, combine; to fuse.
  Quotations
  According to the reigning hypothesis, about 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after Earth had accreted down into a sphere from its little slub of circumsolar material, another newborn planet [Theia], still shaky on its feet, slammed obliquely into Earth with terrifying force.
  2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again ”, in The New York Times‎
  Chris Ormel, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam, and his colleagues recently calculated that protoplanets began to form at the snow line around the star, then grew quickly by accreting pebbles.
  2018 April 26, Alexandra Witze, “Earth May Have Been Formed by a Bunch of Tiny Space Pebbles”, in The Atlantic‎
2. (intransitive) To adhere; to grow or to be added to gradually.
3. (transitive) To make adhere; to add; to make larger or more, as by growing.
  Quotations
  the reader has not only mastered this distinction , but that he has so thoroughly accreted it and assimilated it to his habits of mind
  1871, John Earle, The Philology of the English Tongue
adjective
not comparable
1. Characterized by accretion; made up
2. (botany) Grown together
  Quotations
  Fruit coriaceous, crowned with accrete calyx
  1881, Henry Baillon, “Jackia”, in The Natural History of Plants, volume 7