accuse

Sayuh-KYOOZ/əˈkjuz/UK/əˈkjuːz/

Formsaccuses, accusing, accused

4 meanings of accuse

Practice

1
verbtransitive
To formally charge a person with having committed a crime or offense.
Prosecutors accused the company of falsifying its financial records.
The witness was reluctant to accuse anyone directly without firm proof.
Similarcharge, indict, impeach, arraign
Oppositeexonerate, clear, acquit, absolve
Note
The legal charge is followed by of: accused of a high crime or misdemeanor, accused of being a "Rightist." The King James Bible of 1611 turns the pattern around, in "the things whereof they now accuse me," with whereof doing the work of "of which." Where the everyday sense of blaming needs only a fault, this one needs an offense. Charge, indict, impeach and arraign are its procedural companions.
2
verbtransitive
To find fault with someone, blaming or criticizing them for something.
He accused his colleagues of ignoring the early warning signs.
Critics accuse the studio of recycling the same tired ideas.
Similarblame, charge, criticize, reproach
Oppositeabsolve, excuse, defend
Note
Behind the blame lies a lawsuit: Latin accūsō, "to call to account," from ad "to" and causa "cause, lawsuit," which makes the verb kin to English cause. It entered Middle English around 1300 and displaced the native bewray. The pattern is accuse someone of something, often with an -ing form, as when Lord Palmerston protests in 1849 that "we are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms."
3
verbintransitive
To make an accusation against another person.
He tends to accuse before hearing the full story.
It is dangerous to accuse without solid evidence.
Similarblame, reproach, censure

Less common meaning

4
nounobsoleteuncountable
A charge or claim that someone has committed a wrong.
The bishop dismissed the accuse as the work of jealous rivals.
And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, / Whose overweening arm I have plucked back, / By false accuse doth level at my life.
c. 1596, William Shakespeare, Henry IV
Note
A noun made from the bare verb with no suffix, and long out of use. Shakespeare could write of a man aiming at another's life "by false accuse," using it without an article, the way a mass noun is used. Today the word is accusation. Use accuse as a noun only when quoting, or when deliberately imitating Elizabethan English.

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Origin

First attested around 1300, it comes from Middle English acusen, from Old French acuser, from Latin accūsō ('to call to account, accuse'), formed from ad ('to') and causa ('cause, lawsuit, reason'). It is akin to 'cause' and displaced the native English word bewray.