- accompany
- accompany, attend, conduct, escort, convoy, chaperon mean to go or be together with; they differ chiefly in their implications as to the nature or purpose of the association.Accompany implies companionship and often, with a personal subject, equality of status{
accompany a friend
}Used of things, it stresses closeness of association{rain accompanied by wind
}{the lightheadedness which accompanies fever— Kipling
}Attend commonly implies the subordinate or inferior status of the accompanying person or thing{the prince was attended (rather than accompanied) by an equerry, a secretary, and a courier
}Sometimes it suggests a service or courtesy{the General attended her himself to the street door— Austen
}Sometimes it connotes following or coming in the wake of someone or something{a train of mourning friends attend his pall— Gray
}{the Nemesis that attends upon human pride— Dickinson
}Conduct usually retains an implication of guidance even when the subject is impersonal{conduct a blind man across the street
}{conduct sightseers through a museum
}{the pipe conducts water from a trough
}Occasionally the emphasis is not on guidance but on conveyance or transmission{metals that conduct heat
}Escort and convoy add to accompany the implication of protection. Both words and their corresponding nouns often suggest the use of an armed force as a guard, but there is a tendency to prefer escort when persons and convoy when things are protected. Also, escort is more often used for journeys on land and convoy for journeys by sea{soldiers escorted the caravan through the desert
}{a destroyer convoyed the freighter through the submarine zone
}Escort, however, often suggests (as convoy no longer suggests) attending as a courtesy or honor{three battleships escorted the visiting potentate’s ship into the harbor
}{escort a lady to her home after a party
}Chaperon and its corresponding noun suggest propriety or sometimes supervision as the motive of the one who accompanies{agreed to chaperon the school picnic
}{as if his intellect were a sort of chaperon to his imagination— Evans
}In ordinary use they imply the presence of a mature woman or sometimes a married couple as the companion of young people (as at a dance or party) to ensure proper behavior{a literary scavenging party arranged by their English teacher who accompanied them as chaperon— Morley
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
