Accuse Ac·cuse" transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Accused ;
present participle & verbal noun Accusing .] [ Old French
acuser , French
accuser , Latin
accusare , to call to account, accuse;
ad +
causa cause, lawsuit. Confer
Cause .]
1. To charge with, or declare to have committed, a crime or offense ;
(Law) to charge with an offense, judicially or by a public process; -- with of ; as, to accuse one of a high crime or misdemeanor. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
Acts xxiv. 13.
We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms.
Macaulay.
2. To charge with a fault; to blame; to censure. Their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
Rom. ii. 15.
3. To betray; to show. [ Latin ]
Sir P. Sidney. Syn. -- To charge; blame; censure; reproach; criminate; indict; impeach; arraign. -- To
Accuse ,
Charge ,
Impeach ,
Arraign . These words agree in bringing home to a person the imputation of wrongdoing. To
accuse is a somewhat formal act, and is applied usually (though not exclusively) to crimes; as, to
accuse of treason.
Charge is the most generic. It may refer to a crime, a dereliction of duty, a fault, etc.; more commonly it refers to moral delinquencies; as, to
charge with dishonesty or falsehood. To
arraign is to bring (a person) before a tribunal for trial; as, to
arraign one before a court or at the bar public opinion. To
impeach is officially to charge with misbehavior in office; as, to
impeach a minister of high crimes. Both
impeach and
arraign convey the idea of peculiar dignity or impressiveness.
Accused Ac·cused" adjective Charged with offense; as, an accused person. Commonly used substantively; as, the
accused , one charged with an offense; the defendant in a criminal case.
Ace Ace noun ;
plural Aces [ Middle English
as , French
as , from Latin
as ,
assis , unity, copper coin, the unit of coinage. Confer
As .]
1. A unit; a single point or spot on a card or die; the card or die so marked; as, the ace of diamonds. 2. Hence: A very small quantity or degree; a particle; an atom; a jot. I 'll not wag an ace further.
Dryden.
To bate an ace ,
to make the least abatement. [ Obsolete] --
Within an ace of ,
very near; on the point of. W. Irving.
Acephala A·ceph"a·la noun plural [ New Latin , from Greek ..., adj. neut. plural, headless. See
Acephal .]
(Zoology) That division of the Mollusca which includes the bivalve shells, like the clams and oysters; -- so called because they have no evident head. Formerly the group included the Tunicata, Brachiopoda, and sometimes the Bryozoa. See Mollusca .