accusative

comparative more accusative · superlative most accusative

1. Producing accusations; in a manner that reflects a finding of fault or blame

   This hath been a very accusative age.

   1641 November 22, Edward Dering, a speech

   1 more example

   The proprietor of the store was rude, insulting and accusative.

   1984 April 14, William F. Orrell, “Bad Business”, in Gay Community News, page 4

   Synonyms: accusatory, accusatorial

2. grammarApplied to the case (as the fourth case of Latin, Lithuanian and Greek nouns) which expresses the immediate object on which the action or influence of a transitive verb has its limited influence. Other parts of speech, including secondary or predicate direct objects, will also influence a sentence’s construction. In German the case used for direct objects.

plural accusatives

1. grammarThe accusative case.
2. grammarA word inflected in the accusative case.

   Romani distinguishes dative and accusative pronouns formally and some Romani dialects use accusatives in constructions in which other languages employ a dative.

   2000, Mily Crevels, Peter Bakker, “External Possession in Romani”, in Viktor Elšík, Yaron Matras, editors, Grammatical Relations in Romani: The Noun Phrase (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science: Series IV – Current Issues in Linguistic Theory; 211), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 181

   2 more examples

   65 mošu tat̰ ās nōit̮ darəγəm yat̰ . . ‘quickly it (tat̰) happened, it (was) not long till . . . — drūm avantəm airištəm: according to Bartholomae IF. 12. 146 the author of this part was led to use accusatives here (instead of nominatives) by the preceding sentence yezi ǰum frapayeni.

   Strasbourg

   1911, Hans Reichelt, Avesta Reader: Texts, Notes, Glossary and Index, Strassburg [Strasbourg]: Verlag von Karl J. Trübner, page 105

   There is some antecedent in old Latin; but as usual the influence is Greek too, for Greek prose and poetry freely use accusatives which are to some extent adverbial accusatives, or accusatives of respect.

   1944, W[illiam] F[rancis] Jackson Knight, “Language, Verse, and Style”, in Roman Vergil (Peregrine Books), Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1966, page 265