arraign

From Middle English arreinen, from Old French araisnier (“to address, to verify”) (whence modern French arraisonner (“to verify cargo, to arraign”)), from raison (“reason”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈɹeɪn/

• Audio (RP)

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• Rhymes: -eɪn

arraign (third-person singular simple present arraigns, present participle arraigning, simple past and past participle arraigned)

1. To officially charge someone in a court of law.

   He was arraigned in Washington, D.C., on the 25th of that month on charges of treason.

2. To call to account, or accuse, before the bar of reason, taste, or any other tribunal.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:

     They will not dare to arraign you for want of knowledge.

   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, OCLC 2619891:

     It is not arrogance, but timidity, of which the Christian body should now be arraigned by the world.

arraign (plural arraigns)

1. Arraignment.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, OCLC 65350522:

     the clerk of the arraigns

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:

     The clerk of the arraigns stood up