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ACCUSED
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A defendant in a criminal proceeding
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("accused" is a kind of...):
defendant; suspect (a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb accuse
Context examples:
The anxious affection, which she was accused of having continually watched in Isabella's every look and action, had, in the course of their yesterday's party, received the delightful confession of an equal love.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
“That's for number one,” cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking with a vehemence that shook the house.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Here was this irreproachable Englishman ready to swear in any court of law that the accused was in the house all the time.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then the judge sent out his officers to bring up the accused wherever they should find him; and he was soon caught and brought up to be tried.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“In that case one of the main points in favour of the accused disappears.”
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was accused of having a delightful voice, and a perfect knowledge of music; which was properly denied; and that he knew nothing of the matter, and had no voice at all, roundly asserted.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
There was a very general ignorance of all naval matters throughout the party; and he was very much questioned, and especially by the two Miss Musgroves, who seemed hardly to have any eyes but for him, as to the manner of living on board, daily regulations, food, hours, &c., and their surprise at his accounts, at learning the degree of accommodation and arrangement which was practicable, drew from him some pleasant ridicule, which reminded Anne of the early days when she too had been ignorant, and she too had been accused of supposing sailors to be living on board without anything to eat, or any cook to dress it if there were, or any servant to wait, or any knife and fork to use.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The man, who seemed a decent fellow enough, contented himself by telling him to shut up for a foul-mouthed beggar, whereon our man accused him of robbing him and wanting to murder him and said that he would hinder him if he were to swing for it.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
You are no stranger to the fact, that there have been periods of my life, when it has been requisite that I should pause, until certain expected events should turn up; when it has been necessary that I should fall back, before making what I trust I shall not be accused of presumption in terming—a spring.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
