| Library / English Dictionary |
ACCUSATION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An assertion that someone is guilty of a fault or offence
Example:
the newspaper published charges that Jones was guilty of drunken driving
Synonyms:
accusation; charge
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("accusation" is a kind of...):
assertion; asseveration; averment (a declaration that is made emphatically (as if no supporting evidence were necessary))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accusation"):
countercharge (a charge brought by an accused person against the accuser)
Derivation:
accusatorial (specifically indicating a form of prosecution in which one is publicly accused of and tried for a crime and in which the judge is not also the prosecutor)
accuse (blame for, make a claim of wrongdoing or misbehavior against)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A formal charge of wrongdoing brought against a person; the act of imputing blame or guilt
Synonyms:
accusal; accusation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("accusation" is a kind of...):
charge; complaint ((criminal law) a pleading describing some wrong or offense)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accusation"):
self-accusation; self-condemnation (an admission that you have failed to do or be something you know you should do or be)
recrimination (mutual accusations)
allegation ((law) a formal accusation against somebody (often in a court of law))
blame game (accusations exchanged among people who refuse to accept sole responsibility for some undesirable event)
imprecation (a slanderous accusation)
imputation (a statement attributing something dishonest (especially a criminal offense))
indictment (an accusation of wrongdoing)
information (formal accusation of a crime)
preferment (the act of making accusations)
blame; incrimination; inculpation (an accusation that you are responsible for some lapse or misdeed)
implication (an accusation that brings into intimate and usually incriminating connection)
Derivation:
accusatorial (specifically indicating a form of prosecution in which one is publicly accused of and tried for a crime and in which the judge is not also the prosecutor)
accuse (bring an accusation against; level a charge against)
Context examples:
Are you aware that Mrs. Hilton Cubitt has herself lain under grave suspicion of the murder of her husband, and that it was only my presence here, and the knowledge which I happened to possess, which has saved her from the accusation?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut me to the heart; I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which she destined me to enter; I felt, though I could not have expressed the feeling, that she was sowing aversion and unkindness along my future path; I saw myself transformed under Mr. Brocklehurst's eye into an artful, noxious child, and what could I do to remedy the injury?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Why she did not like Jane Fairfax might be a difficult question to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was because she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she wanted to be thought herself; and though the accusation had been eagerly refuted at the time, there were moments of self-examination in which her conscience could not quite acquit her.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
You must have observed his attentions; and though you always received them very properly (I have no accusation to make on that head), I never perceived them to be unpleasant to you.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I make no counter-accusations. But I am sorry to repeat, it is impossible.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
With respect to that other, more weighty accusation, of having injured Mr. Wickham, I can only refute it by laying before you the whole of his connection with my family.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Nor did my hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I began to reflect on the best means of securing him; and for this purpose, about a month after my release, I repaired to a criminal judge in the town and told him that I had an accusation to make, that I knew the destroyer of my family, and that I required him to exert his whole authority for the apprehension of the murderer.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
As to the two former accusations, I was glad to let them pass without any reply, because I had not a word to offer upon them in defence of my species, which otherwise I certainly had done from my own inclinations.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Her brother gave only a smile to this accusation, and soon afterwards said, I do not quite know what to make of Miss Fanny.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I have now concluded. It merely remains for me to substantiate these accusations; and then, with my ill-starred family, to disappear from the landscape on which we appear to be an encumbrance. That is soon done.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
