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Accuse vs Arrest - What's the difference?

accuse | arrest |

As a verb accuse

is .

As a noun arrest is

arrest, confinement, detention.

accuse

English

(Webster 1913)

Verb

(accus)
  • To find fault with, to blame, to censure.
  • * (rfdate) (Epistle to the Romans) 2:15,
  • Their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
  • * (rfdate) ,
  • We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms.
  • To charge with having committed a crime or offence.
  • * (rfdate) (Acts of the Apostles) 24:13,
  • Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
  • To make an accusation against someone.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=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.}}

    Usage notes

    * (legal) When used this way accused is followed by the word of . * Synonym notes: 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.

    Synonyms

    * (legal) charge, indict, impeach, arraign * () blame, censure, reproach, criminate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An accusation.
  • (Shakespeare)

    arrest

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A check, stop, an act or instance of something.
  • The condition of being stopped, standstill.
  • (legal) The act of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.
  • A confinement, detention, as after an arrest.
  • A device to physically arrest motion.
  • (nautical) The judicial detention of a ship to secure a financial claim against its operators.
  • (obsolete) Any seizure by power, physical or otherwise.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • The sad stories of fire from heaven, the burning of his sheep, etc., were sad arrests to his troubled spirit.
  • (farriery) A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse.
  • (White)

    Derived terms

    * arrest warrant * cardiac arrest * house arrest

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To stop the motion of (a person or animal).
  • * Philips
  • Nor could her virtues the relentless hand / Of Death arrest .
  • (obsolete) To stay, remain.
  • (Spenser)
  • To stop (a process, course etc.).
  • * 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 707:
  • To try to arrest the spiral of violence, I contacted Chief Buthelezi to arrange a meeting.
  • * 1997 : Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault , page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865)
  • Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables …Western reason had entered the age of judgement.
  • To seize (someone) with the authority of the law; to take into legal custody.
  • The police have arrested a suspect in the murder inquiry.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I arrest thee of high treason.
  • To catch the attention of.
  • * 1919 : :
  • There is something about this picture—something bold and vigorous, which arrests the attention. I feel sure it would be highly popular.

    Derived terms

    * arrester, arrestor * arrestment * arresting

    Anagrams

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