accost Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb speak to someone
    come up to; address.
  2. verb approach with an offer of sexual favors
    hook; solicit.
    • he was solicited by a prostitute
    • The young man was caught soliciting in the park

WordNet

Ac*cost" transitive verb
Etymology
F. accoster, LL. accostare to bring side by side; L. ad + costa rib, side. See Coast, and cf. Accoast.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Accosted; present participle & verbal noun Accosting
Definitions
  1. To join side to side; to border; hence, to sail along the coast or side of. Obs. "So much [of Lapland] as accosts the sea." Fuller.
  2. To approach; to make up to. Archaic Shak.
  3. To speak to first; to address; to greet. "Him, Satan thus accosts." Milton.
Ac*cost" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To adjoin; to lie alongside. Obs. "The shores which to the sea accost." Spenser.
Ac*cost" noun
Definitions
  1. Address; greeting. R. J. Morley.

Webster 1913