accroach means to hook, or draw to oneself as with a hook. It carries an Arena rating of 1599, earned across 80 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, accroach ranks #341 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #554 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,078 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,524 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
accroach is pronounced /əˈkɹəʊtʃ/.
Why “accroach” is a great word
ACCROACH — [Verb] To usurp or appropriate to oneself, especially a right, power, or privilege. From Middle English acrochen, from Old French acrochier ("to hook in"), from a- (ad-, "to") + croche ("hook"). Unlike "encroach," which implies a slow, creeping trespass upon a periphery, or "assume," which can denote a neutral taking-on of duty, to accroach is the decisive, illegitimate seizure of authority. It is the cold hand snatching the only seal of office from a council table, the forged signature on a deed of ownership, the sudden, silent donning of a crown—the quiet, violent moment when a hook catches, and power changes hands.
Etymology
From Middle English acrochen, from Old French acrochier (“to hook in”), from a + croche (“hook”).
verb
- To hook, or draw to oneself as with a hook.
- To usurp, as jurisdiction or royal prerogatives.e.g.“They had attempted to accroach to themselves royal power.” — 1874-1878, William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England:
- To encroach.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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