PROSECUTE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Prosecute

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/prˈɑsəkjˌut/ Listen

verb

Prosecute v. t. (past & past part. prosecuted; pres. part. prosecuting)

To follow or pursue with a view to reach, execute, or accomplish; to endeavor to obtain or complete; to carry on; to continue; as, to prosecute a scheme, hope, or claim. "I am beloved Hermia; Why should not I, then, prosecute my right?"

To seek to obtain by legal process; as, to prosecute a right or a claim in a court of law.

(Law) To pursue with the intention of punishing; to accuse of some crime or breach of law, or to pursue for redress or punishment, before a legal tribunal; to proceed against judicially; as, to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot. "To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes."

Prosecute v. i.

To follow after. (Obs.)

(Law) To institute and carry on a legal prosecution; as, to prosecute for public offenses.

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Etymology of 'Prosecute'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prosecute" Quotes from Famous Books

... between Britain and Spain sprang from the attempts of the British merchants to prosecute an illicit trade with the Spanish main. These unjustifiable practices on their part produced severity on the part of the Spaniards toward the subjects of Great Britain which were not more justifiable, because ...

— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... a pretty emphasis which La Mothe found very pleasant. "We shall have a new play to-night. A Court of High Justice, and Monsieur La Mothe arraigned for defrauding Amboise of a pleasure these ten days. I shall prosecute, Charles must be judge, and your sentence will be to sing ...

— The Justice of the King • Hamilton Drummond

... Australian continent, was to serve as a rendezvous for the entire company; one of the squads was directed to remain at this point for three months, and longer if practicable; another squad was told to rest a while at Menindie, and then join the first; while Burke, Wills, Gray and King were to prosecute their journey northward, do their utmost to accomplish the main object of the expedition, and return to Cooper's Creek. Had this plan been faithfully executed, all might have gone well. But hardly had Burke taken his departure when quarrels for pre-eminence broke out among ...

— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878 • Various

... flock of sheep. The Court was crowded, for the case against the Blacks had made a prodigious stir; and the King's Attorney, the most furious Person for talking a Fellow-creature's Life away that ever I remember to have seen or heard, came down especially from London to prosecute us. Neither he nor His Lordship the Judge, in his charge to the Grand Jury, had any but the worst of words to give us; and folks began to say that this would be another Bloody Assize; that the Shire Hall had need to be ...

— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... this, Marmont retired on the valley of the Tagus. Dorsenne also fell back, and for the present at least, no further effort was made to prosecute the invasion of Portugal. ...

— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever

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