Forms: 3–4 acuse, 4– accuse. [a. OFr. acuse-r:—L. accūsā-re to call to account; for accausā-re, f. ac- = ad- to + causā-re; f. causa cause, reason, account. In 14th c. the Fr. prefix a- began to be refashioned after L. as ac- in Fr. and Eng.]
1. To charge with a fault; to find fault with, blame, censure.
a. Of persons.
1297. R. Glouc., 523. Sir Hubert de Boru … Acused was to the king of mani luther prise.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 5423. Many accusers þar sal be þan, To accuse þam byfor þat domesman.
1393. Langland, P. Pl., C. IV. 220. For conscience acuseþ the · to congie þe for euere.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom. (1879), 417. The wolfe had Envie, and began to accuse hym to the lyon.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Sam. xix. 27. He hath accused thy seruaunt before my lorde y3 kynge.
1611. Bible, Prov. xxx. 10. Accuse not a seruant vnto his master.
1715. Burnet, Hist. Own Times (1823), I. 366. He had accused him to the King.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, IV. 220. She sent for Blanche to accuse her face to face.
b. Of things.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xxvii. 331. Why art thow so hardye & so fre The erthe to acvsen in ony degre?
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iv. 16. The Pharisees … accused the Holinesse of Christ.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Ach., 622. Such frugal Virtue Malice may accuse.
1708. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Britain (1743), I. III. i. 140. Which being done accordingly, he accuseth their contumacy.
1781. Gibbon, Decl & F., II. xxxi. 181. Popular clamour accused the dearness and scarcity of wine.
1857. Bohn’s Handbk. Prov., 305. Accusing the times is but excusing ourselves.
2. (With the charge expressed.) To blame, charge, indict. a. with as (for obs.).
1513–4. R. Pace, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 37, I. 108. For the punischement of suche as were accusidde as autors off the sayde poysonynge.
1538. Starkey, England, 10. The socyety and cumpany of man ys not to be accusyd as the cause of thys mysordur.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 192. Doth any one accuse Yorke for a Traytor?
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., V. 229. Many indeed accuse such payments, as Popish in their original.
1673. W. Cave, Prim. Chr., I. i. 6. Caecilius … accuses the Christians for a desperate undone and unlawful faction.
Mod. He was accused as accessary to the crime.
† b. with subord. cl. or inf. phr. Obs.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Macc. x. 21. Accusynge those personnes, that they had solde the brethren for money.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 46. Certaine of this sect and opinion, were accused to have come from the Ancestors of Judas.
1611. Bible, Luke xvi. 1. The same was accused vnto him that he had wasted his goods.
1690. Locke, Hum. Underst., Wks. 1727, I. I. ii. § 25. 11. That I may not be accused, to argue from the Thoughts of Infants, which are unknown to us, and to conclude, from what passes in their understandings.
3. To accuse (a person) of, (for, in, upon obs.): To charge with the crime or fault of.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 236. The world hath oft accused Full grete princes of this dede.
c. 1430. Lydgate, Bochas (1544), I. ii. 22 a. Atreus accused himself of murdre, and his brother upon advoutrye.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 17. I accuse my selfe of discourtesie too my friendes in keeping these abuses so long secret.
1598. Shaks., Merry Wives, II. i. 180. These that accuse him in his intent towards our wiues, are a yoake of his discarded men. Ibid. (1602), Haml., III. i. 124. I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my Mother had not borne me.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 163. As a Father of the Church, he is accused for too much conniving at the factious disturbers thereof.
1809. Southey, in Q. Rev., I. 193. The Romanists accuse the Protestants for their indifference.
1878. Seeley, Stein, III. 476. They may accuse his admirers of claiming too much, but they can bring no such accusation against himself.
4. absol. (by omitting the personal object), as in ‘Who is he that accuseth?’ and hence, intr. To bring an accusation; to utter charges.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wycket, 18. Nowe a dayes they accusen falsely agaynste Chryste.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (1636), E 4. Doth not Physicke destroy if it be not wel tempered? Doth not Law accuse if it be not rightly interpreted?
1868. Geo. Eliot, Sp. Gypsy, 318. He accused no more, But dumbly shrank before accusing throngs of thought.
5. To betray, disclose. Hence, fig. to reveal, display, indicate, show, or make known. (Rare in mod. Eng., and when found, perhaps in imitation of mod. Fr., in which this is a common sense of accuser.)
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1591. Right so the cristalle stoon shynyng, Withouten ony disseyvyng, The entrees of the yerde accusith.
1477. Earl Rivers, Dictes (Caxton), 29. Withoute he wolde accuse them that wer consenting to make werre ayenst the King.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, II. 124. The Princes did in their countenances accuse no points of fear.
1649. Milton, Eikonokl., Wks. 1738, I. 376. This wording was above his known Stile and Orthography, and accuses the whole composure to be conscious of some other Author.
1658. Reliq. Wotton. (1672), 362. I cannot (according to the Italian phrase) … accuse the receit of any Letter from you.
1864. Crowe & Cavalcaselle, Painting in Italy, II. xxi. 523. The distribution of the scene accuses an absence of motive or thought.
