accuse

See also: accusé

English

Etymology

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
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: əkyo͞ozʹ, IPA(key): /əˈkjuːz/
  • (US) enPR: əkyo͞ozʹ, IPA(key): /əˈkjuz/
    • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːz
  • Hyphenation: ac‧cuse

Verb

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 964384981, 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
    For the U.S. President to be impeached, he must be accused of a high crime or misdemeanor.
    Synonyms: charge, indict, impeach, arraign
  3. (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.
    Synonyms: blame, censure, reproach, criminate

Conjugation
Conjugation 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

†Archaic or obsolete.

Translations

Noun

accuse (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Accusation.
    • 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.

Further reading
  • accuse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • accuse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
  • accuse at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation
  • Audio(file)

Verb

accuse

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

Italian

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

Noun

accuse f

  1. plural of accusa

Portuguese

Verb

accuse

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