Definition of 'accuse'
Word forms: 3rd person singular present tense accuses
, present participle accusing
, past tense, past participle accused
1. verb
2. verb
4.
See stand accused
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
British English pronunciation
American English pronunciation
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Word Frequency
accuse in British English
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Derived forms
accuser (acˈcuser) noun
accusing (acˈcusing)
adjective
accusingly (acˈcusingly)
adverb
Word origin
C13: via Old French from Latin accūsāre to call to account, from ad- to + causa lawsuit
Word Frequency
accuse in American English
Idioms:
SYNONYMY NOTE: accuse means to find fault for offenses of varying gravity [to accuse someone of murder, carelessness, etc.]; to charge is to make an accusation of a legal or formal nature [the police charged her with jaywalking]; indict describes the action of a grand jury and means to find a case against a person and
order the person to be brought to trial; arraign means to call a person before a court to be informed of pending charges; impeach means to charge a public official with misconduct in office, but in nonlegal usage
means to challenge a person's motives, etc.Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Derived forms
accuser (acˈcuser)
noun
accusingly (acˈcusingly)
adverb
Word Frequency
accuse in American English
(əˈkjuːz) (verb -cused, -cusing)
transitive verb
SYNONYMS 1. arraign, indict; incriminate, impeach.ANTONYMS 1, 2. exonerate.1. (usually fol. by of)
to charge with the fault, offense, or crime
He accused him of murder
2.
to find fault with; blame
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Derived forms
accusable adjective
accusably
adverb
accusant
noun
accusingly
adverb
Word origin
[1250–1300; ME ac(c)usen ‹ OF acuser ‹ L accūsāre to call to account (ac- ac- + -cūs-, comb. form of caus-; see cause)]Examples of 'accuse' in a sentence
accuse
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In other languages
accuse
British English: accuse
/əˈkjuːz/ VERB
If you accuse someone of something, you say that you believe they did something wrong or dishonest.
He accused her of having an affair.
- American English: accuse /əkyˈuz/
- Arabic: يَتَّهِمُ
- Brazilian Portuguese: acusar
- Chinese: 指控
- Croatian: optužiti
- Czech: obvinit
- Danish: beskylde
- Dutch: beschuldigen
- European Spanish: acusar culpar
- Finnish: syyttää
- French: accuser
- German: beschuldigen
- Greek: κατηγορώ
- Italian: accusare
- Japanese: 訴える
- Korean: 고소하다 법적 조치를 하다
- Norwegian: beskylde
- Polish: oskarżyć
- European Portuguese: acusar
- Romanian: a acuza
- Russian: обвинять
- Latin American Spanish: acusar
- Swedish: anklaga
- Thai: กล่าวหา
- Turkish: suçlamak
- Ukrainian: звинувачувати
- Vietnamese: buộc tội
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Definition of accuse from the Collins English Dictionary
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