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Glite Dictionary
to call to account

to call to account

3 6.0
Make someone explain what they did and take responsibility
  • phrasal verb
  • Formal
translation icon : llamar a rendir cuentas
  • The next election will test Republican resolve to get the country on a more responsible track and test the basic honesty of Democratic leaders when they are called to account for the fiscal disasters that lie in wait if Medicare is not reformed.

Where they can just suggest things without being called to account for it as much as the PAP.

Examples

  • In the meeting, the manager made it clear that every team member would be called to account for their performance during the last quarter.

  • It is the federal government that deserves to be called to account.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Public schools have never truly been called to account; they have never really been taken to task for their product.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Should the people who engaged in that inappropriate conduct be called to account?

    Blog text (6)

  • No one likes to be called to account for their actions, particularly ideologues.

    Blog text (20)

  • Rhee was not proactive about investigating this and should be called to account.

    Blog text (29)

  • Unquestioning faith in mathematical models still has not been adequately called to account for its role in the 2008 financial crisis, for example.

    Blog text (13)

  • Article XLIX proclaimed that all officers of the state, including judges, were subject to being "called to account by the house assembly."

    Academic text (2009)

  • Even the business leaders who concocted the various financial schemes for which many of them are now being called to account might have had second thoughts if their education had given them a wider perspective on what they were doing.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The dilemma is created by new media that increase public access to speech or assembly. With the spread of such media, whether photocopiers or web browsers, a state accustomed to having a monopoly on public speech finds itself called to account for anomalies between its view of events and the public's.

    Academic text (2011)

Synonyms

to call out
vsto call to account
  • Texting
68 4.6

Publicly criticize a person or group for bad actions

requires explanation or responsibility without necessarily making a public accusation
to call on
vsto call to account
  • Informal
65 4.7

To challenge someone to explain or defend what they said

requires explanation or acceptance of responsibility without stressing contradiction
to answer for
vsto call to account
38 5.8

Have to explain and take blame if something goes wrong

focuses on making someone explain rather than describing their responsibility

Antonyms

to forgive
∞ 1.4

To stop feeling angry at someone or yourself for a mistake

to excuse
178 2.5

Try to explain a mistake to make it seem less serious

How Accountable

to punish
821 1.0
accountable
251 4.6
to call to account
  • Formal
3 6.0

Surface Forms

call to account infinitive
called to account past
called to account past participle
calling to account present participle
calls to account third person singular

Morphology

call + to + account

The meaning is directly built from 'call' (to summon/request) plus 'to account' (to explain or justify), so a learner who knows those constituents can infer that it means requiring someone to explain or accept responsibility. The structure and sense are compositional and have parallels in other languages, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Call to account comes from old business life: traders were literally called to give their account, their money records, to bosses or leaders when things went wrong. That's why today it means 'to require someone to explain or accept responsibility'.