accost

verb

ac·​cost ə-ˈkȯst 

-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

Pharrell Williams faced an unexpected interruption when he was accosted by a PETA activist during the premiere of his Lego biopic, Piece by Piece. —Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 11 Sep. 2024

The exchanges between Erika and Walter have a bouncy, winking quality, with the pair dancing around Erika’s strict demands of no touching, a boundary finally broken when Walter hilariously accosts her in a toilet stall during a concert performance. —Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 2024

Some women have been accosted or berated by other conservative women for failing to do so. —Emily Dyer, Foreign Affairs, 27 Jan. 2014

There, on the outskirts of the famous rotunda, Bailey accosted and started haranguing me about [the New York law Trump was found liable for violating]. —Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 25 July 2024

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

Kids Definition

accost

verb

ac·​cost ə-ˈkȯst 

-ˈkäst

: to approach and speak to often in a challenging or aggressive way