accuse
See also: accusé
English
editEtymology
editFirst 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. Displaced native English bewray.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: əkyo͞ozʹ, IPA(key): /əˈkjuːz/
- (US) enPR: əkyo͞ozʹ, IPA(key): /əˈkjuz/
- Rhymes: -uːz
- Hyphenation: ac‧cuse
Verb
editaccuse (third-person singular simple present accuses, present participle accusing, simple past and past participle accused)
- (transitive) to find fault with, blame, censure
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 2:15:
- […] and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
- 1849 February 2, Lord Palmerston, The Address in Answer to the Speech—Adjourned Debate, House of Commons; republished as Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, volume 102, third series, 1849, page 216:
- We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms when their differences might have involved the Powers of Europe in contention.
- (transitive, law, followed by "of") to charge with having committed a crime or offence
- Synonyms: charge, indict, impeach, arraign
- For the U.S. President to be impeached, he must be accused of a high crime or misdemeanor.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 24:13:
- Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
- 1981, Hualing Nieh, editor, Literature of the Hundred Flowers[1], volume II, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page xxxix:
- Ting Ling had disappeared from public life in 1958. She was accused of being a "Rightist" and was sent to a farm in Hei-lung-chiang Province in remote northeast China, worked there twelve years raising chickens, was in prison five years (1970-1975), and began to live in a village in Shansi in 1975.
- (intransitive) to make an accusation against someone
- 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.
Conjugation
editConjugation of accuse
infinitive | (to) accuse | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | accuse | accused | |
2nd-person singular | accuse, accusest† | accused, accusedst† | |
3rd-person singular | accuses, accuseth† | accused | |
plural | accuse | ||
subjunctive | accuse | accused | |
imperative | accuse | — | |
participles | accusing | accused |
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
editattribute blame to someone
|
Noun
editaccuse (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Accusation.
- c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, 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.
Further reading
edit- “accuse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “accuse”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “accuse”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
editFrench
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Verb
editaccuse
- inflection of accuser:
Italian
editPronunciation
editNoun
editaccuse f
Portuguese
editVerb
editaccuse
- inflection of accusar:
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