accredit

• First attested in the 1610s.
• From French accréditer, from à (“to”) + to credit, from crédit (“credit”).
• See credit.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈkɹɛd.ɪt/

• Audio (US)

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accredit (third-person singular simple present accredits, present participle accrediting, simple past and past participle accredited)

1. (transitive) To ascribe; attribute; credit with.
2. (transitive) To put or bring into credit; to invest with credit or authority; to sanction.
   • February 17, 1793, William Cowper, letter to Samuel Rose, Esq.

     His censure will […] accredit his praises.

   • 1612–1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], Thomas Shelton, transl., The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] William Stansby, for Ed[ward] Blount and W. Barret, →OCLC:

     these reasons […] which accredit and fortify mine opinion.

3. (transitive) To send with letters credential, as an ambassador, envoy, or diplomatic agent; to authorize, as a messenger or delegate.
   • 1856–1870, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, volumes (please specify |volume=I to XII), London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     Beton […] was accredited to the Court of France.

4. (transitive) To believe; to put trust in.
   • 1820, Robert Southey, The Life of Wesley; and Rise and Progress of Methodism:

     He accredited and repeated stories of apparitions and witchcraft.

   • 1855, George Cornewall Lewis, Enquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History:

     The version of early Roman history which was accredited in the fifth century.

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     He spoke as if he saw the Truth, and, persisting in it so long, he was accredited by those who did not understand him, and silenced them that did.

5. (transitive) To enter on the credit side of an account book.
6. (transitive) To certify as meeting a predetermined standard; to certify an educational institution as upholding the specified standards necessary for the students to advance.

   The school was an accredited college.

7. (transitive) To recognize as outstanding.
8. (transitive, literally) To credit.