[f. ACCOMPANY + -ING1.] The action of being a companion, associating, going or acting with; or of giving anything an accompaniment. spec. The act of playing an additional part on an instrument in support of a singer. (Now mostly gerundial.)
1581. Sidney, Def. Poesie (1622), 515. Heraclitus … is to be praised for compassionate accompanying iust causes of lamentations.
1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. James III., Wks. 1711, 56. Acts were made that no convention of friends should be suffered for the accompanying & defence of criminal persons.
Mod. May I have the pleasure of accompanying you?
