indict

American  

[in-dahyt] / ɪnˈdaɪt /

verb (used with object)

1. Law. (of a grand jury) to bring a formal accusation against (someone) as a means of bringing a case to trial after ascertaining that there is enough evidence.

   The grand jury indicted him for murder.

2. to charge with an offense or crime; accuse of wrongdoing; incriminate; condemn.

   He tends to indict everyone of plotting against him.

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indict British  

/ ɪnˈdaɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to charge (a person) with crime, esp formally in writing; accuse

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Usage

What does indict mean? To indict someone is to officially charge them with a crime that will be the subject of a criminal trial.Indicting a suspect is the final step in the evidence-gathering process before a person is put on trial for a serious crime, especially a felony. The official announcement of this accusation is called an indictment. In the U.S., such indictments are presented by a grand jury—the group of people responsible for determining whether there is enough evidence of a crime for a suspect to be put on trial.Indict can also be used in a more general way, outside of a legal context, to mean to accuse or strongly criticize, or to reveal something as being deserving of criticism. The noun indictment can also be used in this more general sense.Example: The suspect has been indicted for armed robbery and will face trial next month.

Other Word Forms

• indictee noun
• indicter noun
• indictor noun
• reindict verb (used with object)

Etymology

Origin of indict

First recorded in 1620–30; variant spelling (from Medieval Latin ) of indite

Example Sentences

But grand juries refused to indict many demonstrators accused by federal prosecutors of attacking agents, and a Times review of alleged assaults found that most incidents resulted in no injuries.

From Los Angeles Times

The server maker looks to be in a tug of war between those betting it can recover from one of its co-founders being indicted for alleged export-control violations and those who fear more repercussions.

From Barron's

Shares of Super Micro fell sharply late last week after a company co-founder was indicted for alleged participation in a scheme that diverted $2.5 billion of company servers to China in violation of export-control rules.

From MarketWatch

Another employee and a contractor were also indicted as part of the scheme, though Super Micro itself wasn’t named as a defendant.

From The Wall Street Journal

She had resigned from government nearly two years earlier after her ministry purchased a government building at an elevated price, but had denied wrongdoing and never been indicted.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• accuse
• charge