Prosecute vs Accuse - What's the difference?
prosecute | accuse |
(legal) To start criminal proceedings against.
* Milton
(legal) To charge, try.
To seek to obtain by legal process.
To pursue something to the end.
* Shakespeare
To find fault with, to blame, to censure.
* (rfdate) (Epistle to the Romans) 2:15,
* (rfdate) ,
To charge with having committed a crime or offence.
* (rfdate) (Acts of the Apostles) 24:13,
To make an accusation against someone.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title=
In transitive terms the difference between prosecute and accuse
is that prosecute is to pursue something to the end while accuse is to charge with having committed a crime or offence.As verbs the difference between prosecute and accuse
is that prosecute is to start criminal proceedings against while accuse is to find fault with, to blame, to censure.As a noun accuse is
an accusation.prosecute
English
Verb
(prosecut)- to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot
- To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes.
- to prosecute a right or a claim in a court of law
- to prosecute a scheme, hope, or claim
- I am beloved of beauteous Hermia; / Why should not I, then, prosecute my right?
Derived terms
* prosecutableaccuse
English
(Webster 1913)Verb
(accus)- Their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
- We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms.
- Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
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.}}