hold to account
English
Verb
hold to account (third-person singular simple present holds to account, present participle holding to account, simple past and past participle held to account)
- (transitive) To require a person to explain or to accept responsibility for his or her actions; to blame or punish someone for what has occurred.
- 1906, Richard Harding Davis, chapter 1, in Soldiers of Fortune:
- [W]hatever they decided to do out there in the wilderness meant thousands of dollars to the stockholders somewhere up in God's country, who would some day hold them to account.
- 1909, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 18, in Ridgway of Montana:
- While Harley had been in no way responsible for Pelton's murderous attack upon Yesler, public opinion held him to account.
- 1996 Dec. 21, Alessandra Stanley, "Patriarchal Yeltsin Says He's Eager to Get Back to Work," New York Times (retrieved 23 July 2012):
- [H]e issued stern warnings to tax evaders and lazy bureaucrats that he would hold them to account.
- 2004 Nov. 15, Andrew Sullivan, "Essay: 2004 Election: Let's Have a Truce," Time:
- I believed it was vital to hold him to account for his obvious failings.
- 2021 May 19, “Network News: Council to monitor HS2 concrete plant”, in RAIL, number 931, page 22:
- He said the council would use all its powers to hold both HS2 and its contractors to account.
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Synonyms
- call to account
- hold accountable
- hold responsible
- take to task
Related terms
- account to
- account for
- accountability
Translations
require a person to explain or to accept responsibility
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References
- hold to account at OneLook Dictionary Search