arraign

From Middle English arreinen, from Old French araisnier (“to address, to verify”) (whence modern French arraisonner (“to verify cargo, to arraign”)), from raison (“reason”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈɹeɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

arraign (third-person singular simple present arraigns, present participle arraigning, simple past and past participle arraigned)

1. To officially charge someone in a court of law.

   He was arraigned in Washington, D.C., on the 25th of that month on charges of treason.

   • 2023 March 30, Ben Protess, Jonah E. Bromwich, William K. Rashbaum, Kate Christobek, Nate Schweber, “Trump Is Indicted, Becoming First Ex-President to Face Criminal Charges”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     He will then be arraigned, at which point the specific charges will be unsealed.

2. To call to account, or accuse, before the bar of reason, taste, or any other tribunal.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     They will not dare to arraign you for want of knowledge.

   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. , London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:

     It is not arrogance, but timidity, of which the Christian body should now be arraigned by the world.

arraign (plural arraigns)

1. Arraignment.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     the clerk of the arraigns

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The clerk of the arraigns stood up