encroachment

• incroachment (archaic)

encroach +‎ -ment

• IPA^(key): /ɪŋˈkɹoʊt͡ʃmənt/, /ɛŋˈkɹoʊt͡ʃmənt/

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encroachment (usually uncountable, plural encroachments)

1. An entry into a place or area that was previously uncommon; an advance beyond former borders; intrusion; incursion.
   • 1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 408:

     At the same time, the encroachment of vegetation proceeds apace, and broom and brambles have already made portions of the line impassable, even on foot.

2. An intrusion upon another's possessions or rights; infringement.
   • 1788, Publius [pseudonym; James Madison], “Number XXXXVII”, in The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, […] , volume II, New York, N.Y.: […] J. and A. M‘Lean, […], →OCLC:

     The Legislative department derives a superiority in our Governments from other circumstances. Its constitutional powers being at once more extensive, and less susceptible of precise limits, it can, with the greater facility, mask, under complicated and indirect measures, the encroachments which it makes on the coördinate departments.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 53–54:

     Ah! my brother, we do well to watch our birthright jealously; the least invasion on the meanest peasant, the slightest encroachment of the powerful, are not matters to be neglected—such are the first steps of tyranny.

3. That which is gained by such unlawful intrusion.
4. (law) An unlawful diminution of the possessions of another.

• encroach

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