accompany, v.
(əˈkʌmpənɪ)
[a. Fr. accompagne-r f. à prep. to + compagne companion.]
To make any one, to make oneself, become or act as a companion.
I. To accompany one thing to or with another.
† 1. To accompany (a person or thing) to (another): to add as companion; to associate; to add or conjoin to. Obs.
1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 174/1 As many as ye can conuerte to your feythe..ye shal haue lycence to baptyse them and to accompanye them to your lawe. 1553–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 127/2 The King againe gathered his men..& with fresh souldiours to them accompanied, met the Danes. |
2. To accompany (a person (obs.) or thing) with (another): to send it with (or give it) the accompaniment or addition of; to supplement it by; to join to it. (Rare and less correct const. by.)
1629 Howell Fam. Lett. (1650) 163, I thought it a good correspondence with you to accompagne it with what follows. 1655 Ld. Burghley in Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 167, I have thought good to accompany him with these my letters. 1810 W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. II. 285 Accompanying my letter by a copy of the ‘Tales of Yore.’ Mod. He accompanied the word with a blow. |
† 3. refl. To associate or unite oneself with. Obs.
1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 119 Accompanye the with good peple and thou shalt be one of them. 1650 Sir A. Weldon Crt. & Char. K. James 62 And did accompany himselfe with none but men..by whom he might be bettered. |
† II. To accompany (sc. oneself) with others. Obs.
† 4. intr. (by omission of refl. pron.) To accompany with: to associate, consort, or keep company with; euphem. to cohabit with. Obs.
1534 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) G ij b, Suche as accompanyeth with man-killers and murtherers. 1577 Test. of 12 Patr. When Anan was marriageable, I gaue Thamar unto him, & he likewise of a spite accompanied not with her. 1676 Clarendon Surv. Leviath. 257 Those men who had accompanied with them all the time. 1760 T. Hutchinson Hist. Col. Mass. Bay (1765) v. 461 A young woman was not less esteemed for having accompanied with a man. |
† 5. absol. To associate in a company; to congregate; to meet, to unite or combine. Obs.
1540 Whittinton Tully's Off. i. 70 Swarmes of bees do accompany..for as moch as they be companable by nature. 1577 Hellowes tr. Gueuara's Fam. Ep. 27 Noblenesse and contention did neuer accompanie in one generous personage. |
III. trans. (from 4, by omission of with.) To accompany persons or things.
† 6. To remain or stay with; to keep company with; euphem. to cohabit with. Obs.
c 1500 Remedie of Loue in Speght Chaucer (1602) 308 b/1 If she sit idle..not accompanide..with maidens I meane, or women. 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 195 Shee vsed no harder wordes to her, then to bid her go home, and accompanie her solitarie father. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 161 We teach, that upon Festival and Fasting times every man forbear to accompany his wife. |
† 7. fig. To tenant or fill (a place) with company. Obs. rare.
1631 Celestina xxi. 201 What hast thou done with my daughter? where hast thou bestow'd her? who shall accompany my disaccompanied habitation? |
8. To go in company with, to go along with; to convoy; to escort (for safety), to attend (as a retinue). (The passive formerly took with, now by.)
c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 48 Which Ambassatours..schal nede to be honorably accompanyd. 1494 Fabyan i. ii. 8 Accompanyed with a great Nombre of Troyans..[he] landed in the countre of Italye. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 333 Panthean Lords, accompany Your Noble Emperour and his louely Bride. 1659 Rushworth Hist. Collect. I. 76 The Marquiss went privately accompanied with the Earl of Bristol. 1722 De Foe Hist. Plague 43 That no neighbours nor friends be suffered to accompany the corpse to church. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. i. i. 11 The ladies often accompanied the gentlemen in hunting parties. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. x. 462 The Earl went as a pilgrim, accompanied by his wife. |
b. fig. Of things personified or viewed as companions.
1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 91 Couetise hath accompaigned them from their childehode. a 1541 Wyatt Complaint (1831) 161 So shall mine eyes in pain accompany my heart. 1611 Bible Heb. vi. 9 Wee are perswaded better things of you, and things that accompany saluation. 1645 Fuller Good Thoughts (1841) 23 Lord, I read how Jacob (then only accompanied with his staff) vowed at Bethel, that..he would make that place thy house. 1856 Mill Logic (1868) i. v. §4. 109 One attribute always accompanies another attribute. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life i. iii. 14 His adviser prescribed a well-cooked little déjeuner à la fourchette, accompanied by half a bottle of sound Bordeaux. |
9. To go along with, or characterize, as an attribute or attendant phenomenon. (The passive still takes with, but by is sometimes found.)
1731 Swift Pref. to Sir W. Temple's Wks. I. 254 To prevent him from finding them in other Places very faulty, and perhaps accompanied with many spurious Additions. 1751 Jortin Serm. (1771) I. iv. 62 Their faith was accompanied with greater degrees of fervour. 1794 Sullivan View of Nat. I. 179 The sparkling flame and vivid heat which accompany the rapid combustion produced by that air [oxygen]. 1869 Phillips Vesuvius iv. 112 The ejections of scoriæ were accompanied by bellowings. 1878 Gladstone Prim. Homer 148 The wisdom of Nestor is amusingly accompanied with self-complacent reflection. |
10. Music. To join a singer or player, by singing or playing on any instrument an additional part or parts. (The player is said also to accompany the singing or piece sung, as well as the singer; and to accompany, with music, on the instrument.)
1583 Golding Calvin's Deut. xliii. 255 A gratious and pleasaunt melody wherein wee be accompanied with the Angels of heauen. c 1680 Sir T. Browne Tracts 124 This hymn accompanied with instrumental musick. 1753 Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. liv. 351 After breakfast, Lucy gave us a lesson on the harpsichord. Sir Charles accompanied her finger, at the desire of the company. 1845 E. Holmes Mozart 26 A lady asked him if he could accompany by ear an Italian Cavatina..[he] accompanied it with the bass without the least embarrassment. 1869 Ouseley Counterpoint xx. 162 The counter-subject is a supplementary melody, intended to accompany the subject and answer. |
¶ The preposition used after the passive accompanied is still somewhat unsettled. As in passives generally, it was formerly with; but by is now always said of personal agents, and, it appears, of things personified or viewed as active agents: ‘He was accompanied by two policemen,’ ‘a ship accompanied by several native junks.’ When accompany is used causally, with introduces the secondary agent or instrument, as ‘he accompanied the word with a blow;’ and this is of course retained in the passive, ‘the word was accompanied with a blow (by him).’ Hence with is used in the passive whenever the agency may be looked upon as merely secondary, or as an accompaniment rather than a companion, even though no primary agent is expressed, ‘The operation was accompanied with much pain.’ Cf. associated, combined with; attended with pain, by satellites; followed by unpleasant symptoms.