accessary

• accessory

accessary (plural accessaries)

1. (law) Someone who accedes to some act, now especially a crime; one who contributes as an assistant or instigator to the commission of an offense.

• accessary before the fact (legal): one who commands or counsels an offense, not being present at its commission.
• accessary after the fact (legal): one who, after an offense, assists or shelters the offender, not being present at the commission of the offense.

accessary (comparative more accessary, superlative most accessary)

1. (law) Accompanying as a subordinate; additional; accessory; especially, uniting in, or contributing to, a crime, but not as chief actor. See accessory.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, Richard III, I-iii:

     To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary.

   • (Can we date this quote?), John Milton, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Amongst many secondary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these are not of least reckoning.

• "This word, as used in law, is spelt accessory by Blackstone and many others; but in this sense is spelt accessary by Bouvier, Burrill, Burns, Whishaw, Dane, and the Penny Cyclopedia; while in other senses it is spelt accessory. In recent text-books on criminal law the distinction is not preserved, the spelling being either accessary or accessory." - Webster, 1913. Since that time this trend has accelerated.

• accessary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.