Etymology 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.
1
To find fault with, blame, censure.
[…] 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:
2
LawFollowed by "of" To charge with having committed a crime or offence.
For the U.S. President to be impeached, he must be accused of a high crime or misdemeanor.
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:
1 more example
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:
3
To make an accusation against someone.
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:
Etymology 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.
And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, / Whose overweening arm I have plucked back, / By false accuse doth level at my life.c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, act 3, scene 1, lines 158–160: