Accost

Definitions: Accost

Accost

Verb

1. Speak to someone.

2. Offer one's body for sex in return for money; "he was solicited by a prostitute".

Date "accost" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Literature	Accost means to "come to the side" of a person for the purpose of speaking to him. (Latin, ad costam, to the side.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Accost

Synonyms: address (v), come up to (v), solicit (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Allocution	Verb: speak to, address, accost, make up to, apostrophize, appeal to, invoke; ball, salute; call to, halloo.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Accost

English words defined with "accost": Abord, Accoast, Accosted, Accosting. (references)

Etymologies containing "accost": Accoast ♦ Compellation. (references)

Title	Author	Quote
Scarlet Letter	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	And, too far off to be able to accost the wedding party, fearing moreover the call of the sergents de ville, the two masks looked elsewhere.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Accost" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 77.78% of the time. "Accost" is used about 18 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	77.78%	14	93,893
Lexical Verb (base form)	16.67%	3	202,518
Noun (singular)	5.56%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	18	N/A

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "accost"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaan		toespreek (address), toespraak. (various references)

Albanian		ofrohem (come forward, tender), drejtohem (call on, destine, move, refer, resort, straighten, strike out, wend, wend one's way), drejtim (administration, conduct, course, direction, directorship, disposal, drift, guide, headship, helm, lead, leadership, lie, line, management, manual, operation, orientation, quarter, rectification, regimen, resort, run, set, steerage, supervision, tenor, trend, vector, way). (various references)

Arabic		‏خاطب (address, declaim, engaged, marriage broker, matchmaker), ‏دنا منه, ‏بادر بالكلام. (various references)

Bulgarian		обръщам се към (address, apostrophize, approach, invoke), заговаряне. (various references)

Chinese		搭讪 (Accosted, Accosting). (various references)

Czech		oslovit (address), obtìžovat (annoy, bother, harass, haunt, incommode, inconvenience, interfere, intrude, molest, pester, push, tackle, trouble, worry), navázat (begin, establish, make, raise, strike up). (various references)

Dutch		aanspreken (address, break into, sue), aanspraak (claim, demand, presumption, pretence), aanklampen (address, board), toespreken (address), toespraak (address, speech). (various references)

Farsi		مواجه شدن(با), مخاطب ساختن (Address), مشتری جلب کردن �'زنان بدکاردرخیابان , نزدیک کشیدن . (various references)

French		accoster, aborder. (various references)

Frisian		oansprekke (address), oanklampe (address). (various references)

German		ansprechen (address, appeal to, approach, attract, beard, go down well, make an impression on, mention, react, respond, speak to, to accost, to come into action, to come into action on, to function in response, to function in response to, to operate, to operate on something, to respond, to respond to something, to speak to). (various references)

Greek		πλευρίζω (alongside come, berth, come alongside, dock, to berth a vessel(alongside quay), to come alongside). (various references)

Hebrew		ל�'שת ול�"בר. (various references)

Hungarian		megszólít (address, apostrophize, to accost, to address). (various references)

Indonesian		menyapa. (various references)

Italian		avvicinare (approach, brign near, bring near, come near, near, position, set). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		話し掛ける (to accost a person, to talk), 話しかける (to accost a person, to talk), 呼び掛ける (to accost, to address, to appeal, to call out to). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		よびかける (to accost, to address, to appeal, to call out to), はなしかける (to accost a person, to talk). (various references)

Manx		loayrt (accosting, address, articulation, discourse, express, frame, frame as word, pipe up, speak, speaking, talk, utter). (various references)

Pig Latin		accostay.(various references)

Portuguese		acostar (berth, board, come alongside, lean meat), abordar (approach, assault, berth, board, broach, come alongside, grapple), saudar (accept, acclaim, greet, hail, receive, recognize, salute, to greet, toast), saudação (greeting, hail, hallo, respects, salutation, salute), felicitar (compliment, congratulate, felicitate, greeting), cumprimento (accomplishment, acquittal, compliance, compliment, enforcement, fulfillment, fulfilment, greeting, hallo, implementation, observance, performance, respect, salute), cumprimentar (bow, cap, compliment, greet, salute, to greet). (various references)

Romanian		agãţa (attach, clench, grapple, hang, hook, importune, suspend), acosta (dock, land, moor), aborda (approach, board, tackle). (various references)

Russian		обратиться к кому-л., приставать (molest, tease), приветствие (acclaimer, greeting, hail, hallo, salutation, salute). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		prići (approach, get at), osloviti (address). (various references)

Spanish		dirigirse a (address, do, make an application to, repair to), dirigir la palabra a (address, bespeak), abordar (accosts, approach, board, collide with, come up to, crash into, engage, get down, land, nobble, tackle, to collide, to collide with). (various references)

Swedish		tilltala (address, appeal to, speak to). (various references)

Turkish		asılmak (be suspended, hang, hang down, hang on, make advances to smb., philander, pull, rush, solicit, swing, tug, wrench), yanaşmak (approach, draw close, draw into, draw near, lend oneself to, roll up, walk up, walk up to), yaklaşıp konuşmak, sarkıntılık etmek (molest). (various references)

Ukranian		чіплятися (arraign, badger, bully, carp, cavil, chicane, clamber, cling, nag, upbraid, worry), звертатися (address, apostrophize, approach, call on, refer, refer back), звертання, звернення (address, appeal, application, invocation, resort), заговорювати, приставати (accede, adhere, badger, board), причалювати (land, wharf), привітання (welcome). (various references)

Vietnamese		sự ch� o (bow, salute). (various references)

Welsh		cyfarch (address, greet, salute). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	ad-, appellare. (various references)
Late Latin	300-700	accostare. (various references)
Middle French	1400-1600	accoster. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "accost": accosted, accosting, accosts. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Accost" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acaos, Accis, acco, Accolta, accont, Accosta, Accous, accoust, accout, accs, Accst, accult, accus, acose, acost, Acot, Acott, acrorst, acrost, acstt, acwos, Akast, Arcott, cacos, Eccoti, isocost, Mccosh. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "accost" (pronounced ukô"st)
3	-ô" s t	crossed, defrost, embossed, exhaust, frost, glossed, lost, tossed.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: coacts.
	Words within the letters "a-c-c-o-s-t"
	-1 letter: ascot, coact, coast, coats, cocas, costa, tacos.
	-2 letters: acts, cast, cats, coat, coca, cost, cots, oast, oats, ocas, scat, scot, stoa, taco, taos.
	-3 letters: act, cat, cos, cot, oat, oca, sac, sat, sot, tao, tas.
	-4 letters: as, at, os, so, ta, to.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-c-o-s-t"
	+1 letter: accosts.
	+2 letters: accosted, accounts, accustom, acoustic, acrostic, coactors, cocomats, coenacts, compacts, contacts, copycats, cosecant, ectosarc, spiccato, staccato, stoccado, stoccata, stockcar, tobaccos, toccatas.
	+3 letters: accentors, acceptors, accosting, accouters, accoutres, accustoms, acoustics, acrolects, acrostics, cachalots, cachepots, cacoethes, catacombs, catechols, catholics, cetaceous, coactions, coatracks, cockatoos, cockboats, cocktails, cocoanuts, cocreates, cofactors, colocates, constancy, contracts, copasetic, coruscant, coruscate, cosecants, crackpots, cystocarp, ectosarcs, isotactic, narcotics, occupants, oiticicas, pasticcio, sackcloth, spiccatos, staccatos, stoccados, stoccatas, stockcars, stomachic, succotash, tobaccoes, trochaics.
	+4 letters: accretions, accusation, accusatory, accustomed, acoustical, acrobatics, acrostical, anorectics, ascomycete, astrocytic, backcloths, backcourts, cacomistle, capacitors, cartouches, catatonics, catchpoles, catchpolls, catchwords, catholicos, chocolates, chromatics, coalescent, cocaptains, cocatalyst, cockatiels, cocreators, cocurators, collocates, compacters, compactest, compactors, concordats, confiscate, consecrate, consociate, contactees, cornstarch, coruscated, coruscates, crosshatch, crosspatch, cryostatic, cystocarps, cytostatic, desiccator, escharotic, facecloths, iconoclast, laccoliths, macrocytes, matchlocks, nonascetic, notchbacks, occipitals, ochlocrats, octarchies, outcatches, outcoaches, pasticcios, recontacts, sackcloths, sacrosanct, scholastic, scoutcraft, stagecoach, stochastic, stomachics, subcompact, touchbacks.
	+5 letters: accompanist, accountants, accountings, accusations, accustoming, acoustician, actinomyces, aristocracy, ascomycetes, autocracies, buccinators, cacomistles, calcitonins, calculators, caoutchoucs, cataractous, catholicons, chalcocites, chatoyances, choanocytes, cholestatic, circulators, coacervates, cocatalysts, cockatrices, coelacanths, compactions, compactness, complicates, concavities, concertinas, conciliates, confiscated, confiscates, confiscator, consecrated, consecrates, consecrator, consociated, consociates, constancies, consultancy, contractors, contradicts, contumacies, coruscating, coruscation, cosmetician, cotransduce, counteracts, cowcatchers, crustaceous, cunctations, cytoplasmic, cytostatics, desiccation, desiccators, disaccustom, dogcatchers, ectoplasmic, encomiastic, escharotics, exsiccation, flocculants, flocculates, iconoclasts, inconstancy, inculcators, masochistic, nonascetics, noncontacts, nontobaccos, obscurantic, occupations, peacockiest, postclassic, postvocalic, psittacotic, pyroclastic, sacculation, saltimbocca, scholastics, scholiastic, scoutcrafts, socialistic, sociopathic, stomachache, stratocracy, subcompacts, subcontract, subcortical, succotashes, sycophantic, technocrats, theocracies, timocracies, tobacconist, vaccinators.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.