Accuse Meaning
/əˈkjuːz/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo find fault with, blame, censure.
verbTo charge with having committed a crime or offence.
Sentence Examples
Why do you accuse my son?
Don't accuse others for your own failure.
You should not accuse him without having any clear proof.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The detective decided to ____ the butler after finding the missing ring in his pocket.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You should not ____ someone of a crime without any proof.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Italic *kaussā Old Latin caussa Latin causa Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin accūsārelbor. Old French acuserbor. Middle English acusen English accuse 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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 2:15:
"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."
— 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:
"Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 24:13:
"Ting Ling had disappeared from public life in 1958. She was accused of being a "Rightist" and was sent to a farm in Hei-lung-chiang Province in remote northeast China, worked there twelve years raising chickens, was in prison five years (1970-1975), and began to live in a village in Shansi in 1975."
— 1981, Hualing Nieh, editor, Literature of the Hundred Flowers, volume II, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page xxxix:
"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."
— 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The detective decided to ____ the butler after finding the missing ring in his pocket.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You should not ____ someone of a crime without any proof.