accost

verb

ac·​cost ə-ˈkȯst How to pronounce accost (audio)
-ˈkäst
accosted; accosting; accosts

transitive verb

: to approach and speak to (someone) in an often challenging or aggressive way
He was accosted by a stranger on the street.

Examples of accost in a Sentence

He was accosted by three gang members on the subway. She was so famous that people would accost her on the street and ask for an autograph.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Brian Thompson, 50, was accosted outside of the Hilton Hotel in midtown, and later pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital. Brooke Seipel, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2024 Capitol Police arrested a man Tuesday night and charged him with assaulting a government official after Rep. Nancy Mace reported that she had been accosted on the U.S. Capitol grounds. Michael Collins, USA TODAY, 11 Dec. 2024 When his father Winston (McCarthy, 62) brings Brandon to a rehab facility in a rural area, the father-son duo are violently accosted — and Winston is wounded — while stopping for gas. Tommy McArdle, People.com, 11 Dec. 2024 Native artists winced two years ago when Gilbert Ortega Jr. accosted Native performers in front of his Old Town Scottsdale store during a Super Bowl promotion. Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic, 22 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for accost 

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French accoster, going back to Old French, "to go alongside of, sail along the coast of, place (a vessel) beside another" (sʼacoster a "to take a place beside, draw near, support"), probably going back to Vulgar Latin *accostāre, from Latin ad- ad- + costa "rib, side" — more at coast entry 1

Note: A common, polysemous verb in Anglo-French, though the English verb, which only begins to appear in the late 16th century, is apparently borrowed directly from Continental French. The sense "to approach and speak to" only appears in French in the early 17th century, about the same time that it appears in English.

First Known Use

1567, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of accost was in 1567

Dictionary Entries Near accost

Cite this Entry

“Accost.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accost. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Kids Definition

accost

verb
ac·​cost ə-ˈkȯst How to pronounce accost (audio)
-ˈkäst
: to approach and speak to often in a challenging or aggressive way

More from Merriam-Webster on accost

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