accuse

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See also: accusé

English

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Etymology

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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. Displaced native English bewray.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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accuse (third-person singular simple present accuses, present participle accusing, simple past and past participle accused)

  1. (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.
  2. (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.
  3. (intransitive) to make an accusation against someone
    Synonyms: blame, censure, reproach, criminate
    • 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

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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accuse (uncountable)

  1. (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

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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accuse

  1. inflection of accuser:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /akˈku.ze/
  • Rhymes: -uze
  • Hyphenation: ac‧cù‧se

Noun

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accuse f

  1. plural of accusa

Portuguese

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Verb

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accuse

  1. inflection of accusar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative