accuse
See also: accusé
Contents
EnglishEdit
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for accuse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
EtymologyEdit
First attested around 1300. From Middle English acusen, from Old French acuser, from Latin accūsō (“to call to account, accuse”), from ad (“to”) + causa (“cause, lawsuit, reason”). Akin to cause.
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: əkyo͞ozʹ, IPA(key): /əˈkjuːz/
- (US) IPA(key): /ə.ˈkjuz/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -uːz
VerbEdit
accuse (third-person singular simple present accuses, present participle accusing, simple past and past participle accused)
- (transitive) To find fault with, to blame, to censure.
- (Can we date this quote?) Epistle to the Romans 2:15,
- Their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
- (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Babington Macaulay,
- We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms.
- (Can we date this quote?) Epistle to the Romans 2:15,
- (transitive) To charge with having committed a crime or offence.
- (Can we date this quote?) Acts of the Apostles 24:13,
- Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
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For the U.S. President to be impeached, he must be accused of a high crime or misdemeanor.
- (Can we date this quote?) Acts of the Apostles 24:13,
- (intransitive) To make an accusation against someone.
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2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
- According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
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Usage notesEdit
- (legal): When used this way accused is followed by the word of.
- Synonym notes: To accuse, charge, impeach, arraign: these words agree in bringing home to a person the imputation of wrongdoing.
- To accuse is a somewhat formal act, and is applied usually (though not exclusively) to crimes; as, to accuse of treason.
- Charge is the most generic. It may refer to a crime, a dereliction of duty, a fault, etc.; more commonly it refers to moral delinquencies; as, to charge with dishonesty or falsehood.
- To arraign is to bring (a person) before a tribunal for trial; as, to arraign one before a court or at the bar public opinion.
- To impeach is officially to charge with misbehavior in office; as, to impeach a minister of high crimes.
- Both impeach and arraign convey the idea of peculiar dignity or impressiveness.
SynonymsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
attribute blame to someone
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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NounEdit
accuse (plural accuses)
- (obsolete) An accusation.
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c. 1596–1599, Shakespeare, William, Henry IV, Part 2, act 3, scene 1, lines 158–160:
- And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, / Whose overweening arm I have plucked back, / By false accuse doth level at my life.
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Further readingEdit
- accuse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- accuse in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- accuse at OneLook Dictionary Search
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
VerbEdit
accuse
- first-person singular present indicative of accuser
- third-person singular present indicative of accuser
- first-person singular present subjunctive of accuser
- third-person singular present subjunctive of accuser
- second-person singular imperative of accuser