hold to account

English

Verb

hold to account (third-person singular simple present holds to account, present participle holding to account, simple past and past participle held to account)

1. (transitive) To require a person to explain or to accept responsibility for his or her actions; to blame or punish someone for what has occurred.
   • 1906, Richard Harding Davis, chapter 1, in Soldiers of Fortune:

     [W]hatever they decided to do out there in the wilderness meant thousands of dollars to the stockholders somewhere up in God's country, who would some day hold them to account.

   • 1909, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 18, in Ridgway of Montana:

     While Harley had been in no way responsible for Pelton's murderous attack upon Yesler, public opinion held him to account.

   • 1996 December 21, Alessandra Stanley, “Patriarchal Yeltsin Says He's Eager to Get Back to Work”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 July 2012:

     [H]e issued stern warnings to tax evaders and lazy bureaucrats that he would hold them to account.

   • 2004 November 15, Andrew Sullivan, “Essay: 2004 Election: Let's Have a Truce”, in Time:

     I believed it was vital to hold him to account for his obvious failings.

   • 2021 May 19, “Network News: Council to monitor HS2 concrete plant”, in RAIL, number 931, page 22:

     He said the council would use all its powers to hold both HS2 and its contractors to account.

Synonyms

• call to account
• hold accountable
• hold responsible
• take to task

Related terms

• account to
• account for
• accountability

Translations

require a person to explain or to accept responsibility

• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} حاسب, ^{(please verify)} ساءل
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 追究責任／追究责任 (zhuījiū zérèn)

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} aansprakelijk stellen
• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} respondigi
• Finnish: saattaa vastuuseen, vaatia tilille
• German: ^{(please verify)} Rechenschaft verlangen, ^{(please verify)} zur Rechenschaft ziehen, ^{(please verify)} zur Verantwortung ziehen
• Hungarian: számonkér (hu), felelősségre von (hu)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} responsabilizzare (it)
• Polish: rozliczać impf, rozliczyć (pl) pf
• Portuguese: ^{(please verify)} responsabilizar (pt)
• Romanian: trage la răspundere
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} responsabilizar (es), llamar a capítulo

References

• “hold to account”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.