Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. Law To call (an accused person) before a court to answer the charge made against him or her by indictment, information, or complaint.
- v. To call to account; accuse: "Johnson arraigned the modern politics of this country as entirely devoid of all principle” ( James Boswell).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In law, to call to or set at the bar of a court, in order to plead guilty or not guilty to the matter charged in an indictment or information. This term is unknown in the law of Scotland, except in trials for high treason, in which the forms of procedure in England and Scotland are the same.
- Hence To call in question for faults, before any tribunal; call before the bar of reason or of taste; accuse or charge in general.
- Synonyms Accuse, Charge, Indict. See accuse.
- n. Arraignment: as, the clerk of the arraigns. Blackstone.
- In old law, to appeal to; claim; demand: in the phrase to arraign an assize, to demand, and hence to institute or prepare, a trial or an action.
Wiktionary
- v. To officially charge someone in a court of law.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. (Law) To call or set as a prisoner at the bar of a court to answer to the matter charged in an indictment or complaint.
- v. To call to account, or accuse, before the bar of reason, taste, or any other tribunal.
- n. Arraignment.
- v. (Old Eng. Law) To appeal to; to demand.
WordNet 3.0
- v. call before a court to answer an indictment
- v. accuse of a wrong or an inadequacy
Etymologies
- French arraisonner (to verify the cargo of a vessel or avion), from raison (Wiktionary)
- Middle English arreinen, from Old French araisnier, from Vulgar Latin *adratiōnāre, to call to account : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin ratiō, ratiōn-, account; see reason. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“To "arraign" was to summon ad rationes to the pleadings.”
“And oh, how many good men and women have I heard bitterly arraign society in that in the begetting of children it does not exercise the judgment which it exercises in breeding its horses and its dogs!”
“According to sources, Libyan officials plan to immediately arraign Gaddafi and put him on trial, but have agreed to let him finish a quick game to 100.”
The Huffington Post: Ben Berkon: Gaddafi Found Playing Dominoes in Washington Heights
“A year later, though, the commission said it had completed its investigation into Odili's "wanton looting of the treasury of Rivers State" and was ready to arraign him on corruption charges.”
The Huffington Post: Arvind Ganesan: Higher Education's Dirty Little Secret
“In other developments Thursday, the judge trying the case declined to arraign any of the suspects, prompting anger from some relatives of victims.”
Voice of America: Defense Attorneys Acknowledge Journalists Died in 2009 Philippines Massacre
“Many critics have sought to keep literary criticism well away from the literary and instead to arraign literature as largely a product of social oppression, complicit in it or at best offering a resistance already contained.”
“It would also put US servicemen at the mercy of any American-hating opportunists who might choose to arraign them on trumped-up charges before an alien court whose judges are likely to be ill-disposed towards America too.”
“Might we now see moves by 'human rights' activists to arraign British officials and politicians for having funded the torture of Palestinians by Palestinians?”
“Yet we can be certain that our grandchildren will arraign us for evils we have committed, and will express amazement that we barely noticed them at the time.”
“Prosecutors will arraign a grandson of Walt Disney today on 20 felony counts of possessing illegal weapons and drugs.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘arraign’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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litigious semantics
ad unguem, abeyance, choleric, contentious, curmudgeonly, churlish, dictatorial, vindictive, dogmatic, truculent, mutinous, refractory and 254 more...
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School Words
hagiography, antediluvian, rakish, impeccable, hackneyed, irascible, nascent, teetotaller, suffragette, amiable, expiate, turbulent and 110 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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smart pple werdz
petard, anxiogenic, paratactic, nonce, baldachin, eugenic, conflagration, innervate, counterfactual, corpuscular, reticulate, apodictic and 93 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
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Words!
quixotic, lugubrious, laconic, terse, diaphanous, truculent, solipsism, meretricious, recondite, salacious, avuncular, obdurate and 229 more...
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