indict
/ɪnˈdaɪt/ verb
Forms indicts indicting indicted
- verb (transitive) To accuse of wrongdoing; charge. “a book that indicts modern values”
- verb (law, transitive) To make a formal accusation or indictment for a crime against (a party) by the findings of a jury, especially a grand jury. “his former manager was indicted for fraud”
Synonyms
arraign charge inculpate accriminate accuse appeach becry tax criminate have up incriminate
Etymology
From Middle English enditen, endyten (“to accuse”), from Old French enditer (“to dictate, indite”), from Late Latin indictāre, frequentative of Latin indicere (“to proclaim”), from in- + dicere (“to say”), or from in- + dictāre (“to say often, to dictate”). Doublet of indite.
The irregular spelling is due to the word having been borrowed into Middle English from Old French, and not from Latin as was the case with most other descendants of dictāre (but see dight). The borrowed /iː/ regularly shifted to /aɪ/ in the course of the Great Vowel Shift; the ⟨c⟩ represents a later attempt at graphic Latinisation.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To write; to compose; to dictate; to indite. [Obs.]
- verb To appoint publicly or by authority; to proclaim or announce.
Etymology [OE. enditen. See Indite.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “indict”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details