Part 41

3. To become a party by associating one's self with others; to give one's adhesion. Hence, to agree or assent to a proposal or a view; as, he acceded to my request.

The treaty of Hanover in 1725 . . . to which the Dutch afterwards acceded. Chesterfield.

Syn. -- To agree; assent; consent; comply; acquiesce; concur.

Ac*ced"ence (&?;), n. The act of acceding.

Ac*ced"er (&?;), n. One who accedes.

||Ac*cel`er*an"do (&?;), a. [It.] (Mus.) Gradually accelerating the movement.

Ac*cel"er*ate (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accelerated (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Accelerating.] [L. acceleratus, p. p. of accelerare; ad + celerare to hasten; celer quick. See Celerity.] 1. To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of; -- opposed to retard.

2. To quicken the natural or ordinary progression or process of; as, to accelerate the growth of a plant, the increase of wealth, etc.

3. To hasten, as the occurence of an event; as, to accelerate our departure.

Accelerated motion (Mech.), motion with a continually increasing velocity. -- Accelerating force, the force which causes accelerated motion. Nichol.

Syn. -- To hasten; expedite; quicken; dispatch; forward; advance; further.

Ac*cel`er*a"tion (&?;), n. [L. acceleratio: cf. F. accélération.] The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as, a falling body moves toward the earth with an acceleration of velocity; -- opposed to retardation.

A period of social improvement, or of intellectual advancement, contains within itself a principle of acceleration. I. Taylor.

(Astr. & Physics.) Acceleration of the moon, the increase of the moon's mean motion in its orbit, in consequence of which its period of revolution is now shorter than in ancient times. - - Acceleration and retardation of the tides. See Priming of the tides, under Priming. -- Diurnal acceleration of the fixed stars, the amount by which their apparent diurnal motion exceeds that of the sun, in consequence of which they daily come to the meridian of any place about three minutes fifty-six seconds of solar time earlier than on the day preceding. -- Acceleration of the planets, the increasing velocity of their motion, in proceeding from the apogee to the perigee of their orbits.

Ac*cel"er*a*tive (&?;), a. Relating to acceleration; adding to velocity; quickening. Reid.

Ac*cel"er*a`tor (&?;), n. One who, or that which, accelerates. Also as an adj.; as, accelerator nerves.

Ac*cel"er*a*to*ry (&?;), a. Accelerative.

Ac*cel"er*o*graph (&?;), n. [Accelerate + -graph.] (Mil.) An apparatus for studying the combustion of powder in guns, etc.

Ac*cel`er*om"e*ter (&?;), n. [Accelerate + -meter.] An apparatus for measuring the velocity imparted by gunpowder.

Ac*cend" (&?;), v. t. [L. accendere, accensum, to kindle; ad + candre to kindle (only in compounds); rel. to candre to be white, to gleam. See Candle.] To set on fire; to kindle. [Obs.] Fotherby.

Ac*cend`i*bil"i*ty (&?;), n. Capacity of being kindled, or of becoming inflamed; inflammability.

Ac*cend"i*ble (&?;), a. Capable of being inflamed or kindled; combustible; inflammable. Ure.

Ac*cen"sion (&?;), n. The act of kindling or the state of being kindled; ignition. Locke.

Ac*cen"sor (&?;), n. [LL., from p. p. accensus. See Accend.] (R. C. Ch.) One of the functionaries who light and trim the tapers.

Ac"cent` (&?;), n. [F. accent, L. accentus; ad + cantus a singing, canere to sing. See Cant.] 1. A superior force of voice or of articulative effort upon some particular syllable of a word or a phrase, distinguishing it from the others.

Many English words have two accents, the primary and the secondary; the primary being uttered with a greater stress of voice than the secondary; as in as′pira\'b6tion, where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a slighter stress on the first. Some words, as an′tiap′o-plec\'b6tic, in- com′pre-hen′si-bil\'b6i-ty, have two secondary accents. See Guide to Pron., t=t= 30-46.

2. A mark or character used in writing, and serving to regulate the pronunciation; esp.: (a) a mark to indicate the nature and place of the spoken accent; (b) a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel marked; as, the French accents.

In the ancient Greek the acute accent (′) meant a raised tone or pitch, the grave (`), the level tone or simply the negation of accent, the circumflex ( ~ or ^) a tone raised and then depressed. In works on elocution, the first is often used to denote the rising inflection of the voice; the second, the falling inflection; and the third (^), the compound or waving inflection. In dictionaries, spelling books, and the like, the acute accent is used to designate the syllable which receives the chief stress of voice.