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# accuse

«accuse» in Mova's school dictionary: **to say that they did something wrong or bad** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (accuse, accuses, accused, accusing); the accused — noun

### meaning for a pupil

1) To accuse someone is to say that they did something wrong or bad. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#m1)

2) In a court, to accuse someone is to say officially that they broke the law; the accused is the person on trial. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life, stories and lessons about fairness it is used when someone blames another person: you should not accuse someone without proof. In law and history it is used for crimes and trials. The pattern is «accuse someone of something / of doing something».

### examples

- She accused her brother of eating the last biscuit. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x1)
- Don't accuse anyone until you know the facts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x2)
- The man was accused of stealing a bike. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x3)
- He felt sad when his friend accused him of lying. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x4)
- The accused stood up in court. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x5)
- In the story, the wolf was wrongly accused. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x6)
- Nobody likes to be accused of cheating. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x7)
- He was accused of nothing less than murder. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/#x8)

### note

Regular verb: accused, accusing. Use «of»: «accuse him of lying» (not «for lying» — that is «blame him for»). Noun: accusation. Being accused does not mean being guilty; you need proof.

### In the corpora

- [A learner driver has L plates and a grown-up beside them; check before you accuse anyone of breaking the law.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/42-our-street-feuds-newcomers-and-stories-that-grow/16/)
- [Never accuse someone because "everyone says"; accusations are for a teacher to look into.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/49-how-to-handle-gossip/18/)
- [AI "detectors" exist, but they make mistakes and can wrongly accuse honest pupils.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/10-using-ai-to-learn-not-to-copy/6/)
- [AI detector tools are not always right and can wrongly accuse honest pupils.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/10-using-ai-to-learn-not-to-copy/14/)
- [It was reported that some students were wrongly accused of cheating by AI detectors; keeping drafts and notes helps show honest work.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/22-news-jobs-art-safety/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «accuse» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accuse/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.