Definition

1. Verb (Transitive):
   • To formally accuse someone of a crime and bring them before a court to answer the charge: The legal process of calling a defendant to court to hear the charges against them and to enter a plea.
   • To call to account; to criticize or find fault with publicly: To question or challenge the validity, adequacy, or conduct of a person, idea, or action.

Examples of Usage

• Legal Context:

  • The suspect will be arraigned in court tomorrow morning.
  • After the grand jury indictment, the defendant was arraigned on charges of fraud.

• General/Critical Context:

  • The opposition leader arraigned the government's new policy before the assembly.
  • His book arraigns the media for its sensationalist reporting.

Advanced Usage

• "to arraign someone for something": To formally charge someone with a specific crime.

  • He was arraigned for embezzlement and conspiracy.

• "to arraign someone on a charge/indictment": The formal legal phrasing for bringing charges.

  • She was arraigned on a charge of perjury.

Variants and Related Words

• Arraignment (n): The legal act or process of arraigning; the court proceeding where charges are read and a plea is entered.
  • The arraignment lasted only fifteen minutes.

Synonyms

• Indict: To formally accuse of or charge with a serious crime.
• Charge: To accuse someone of an offense, especially formally.
• Censure: To express severe disapproval, typically in a formal statement.
• Impeach: To charge (a public official) with misconduct; or more generally, to challenge the validity or integrity of.

Related Phrases

• To be brought to the bar: A formal expression meaning to be brought before a court for trial or arraignment.
• To take to task: An idiom meaning to reprimand or criticize someone (similar to the second meaning of "arraign").
  • The manager took him to task for his careless mistake.

Verb

1. accuse of a wrong or an inadequacy
2. call before a court to answer an indictment