Literary notes about Encroachment (AI summary)
In literary contexts, "encroachment" is often employed to depict both tangible invasions and metaphorical oversteps. At times it describes the physical progression of natural forces, as when the sea slowly advances upon the shore [1, 2, 3, 4]. In other instances, writers use the term to illustrate the insidious expansion of power or influence—whether critiquing the erosion of traditional rights and liberties [5, 6, 7] or highlighting the gradual imposition on personal space and established order [8, 9, 10]. This dual usage enriches the narrative, inviting readers to consider both the literal and figurative implications of boundaries being trespassed.
- Ever since the completion of the new tower in 1870, there had begun a very gradual encroachment of the sea upon the beach.
— from Historically Famous LighthousesCG-232 by United States. Coast Guard - To the encroachment of the sea was added the flooding resulting from an abnormally rainy winter.
— from Kings, Queens and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front by Mary Roberts Rinehart - This encroachment of the sands, which increases every year in extent, will soon change the already dreary banks of the Volga into a real desert.
— from Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. by Xavier Hommaire de Hell - One great purpose which these plants serve, is that of preventing the encroachment of the sea upon the land.
— from The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2 by George Finlayson - One of the remarkable intellectual phenomena of the age in which we live, however, is the gradual encroachment of literature upon dramatic art.
— from The Collector Essays on Books, Newspapers, Pictures, Inns, Authors, Doctors, Holidays, Actors, Preachers by Henry T. (Henry Theodore) Tuckerman - Encroachment on the liberty of the individual is characteristic of unchristian political societies, and all states are now receding from Christianity.
— from The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation by Austin O'Malley - The gentleman had voted for every bill, and then had justified every veto, and every act of executive encroachment on this House."
— from Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2) or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850 by Thomas Hart Benton - But in giving that consent, they had hardly expected that such encroachment would be made on their good-nature.
— from The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope - She permitted no encroachment upon her settled usages, and no questioning of her ancient beliefs.
— from Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker - He could not stand any encroachment upon his liberty.
— from Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by Johan Huizinga
