What's the difference between accusation and plaint?

Accusation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of accusing or charging with a crime or with a lighter offense.
  • (n.) That of which one is accused; the charge of an offense or crime, or the declaration containing the charge.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The judge, Mr Justice John Royce, told George she was "cold" and "calculating", as further disturbing details of her relationship with the co-accused, Colin Blanchard and Angela Allen, emerged.
  • (2) Some international coverage of the outbreak was accused of misinforming western readers.
  • (3) Photograph: Guardian The research also compiled data covered by a wider definition of tax haven, including onshore jurisdictions such as the US state of Delaware – accused by the Cayman islands of playing "faster and looser" even than offshore jurisdictions – and the Republic of Ireland, which has come under sustained pressure from other EU states to reform its own low-tax, light-tough, regulatory environment.
  • (4) Faisal Abu Shahla, a senior official in Fatah, an organisation responsible for a good deal of repression of its own when it was in power, accuses Hamas of holding 700 political prisoners in Gaza as part of a broad campaign to suppress dissent.
  • (5) The charges against Harrison were filed just after two white men were accused of fatally shooting three black people in Tulsa in what prosecutors said were racially motivated attacks.
  • (6) Defence lawyers suggested this week that Anwar's accuser was a "compulsive and consummate liar" who may have been put up to it.
  • (7) Meanwhile, Hunt has been accused of backtracking on a key recommendation in the official report into Mid Staffs.
  • (8) She has been accused of being responsible for rape, sexual slavery, and prostitution itself.
  • (9) We repeat our call for them to do so at the earliest opportunity, and to share those findings so that we can take any appropriate actions.” In the BBC programme the 29-year-old Rupp, who won 10,000m silver at the London 2012 Olympics behind Farah, was accused of having taken testosterone and being a regular user of the asthma drug prednisone, which is banned in competition.
  • (10) David Cameron was accused of revealing his ill-suppressed Bullingdon Club instincts when he shouted at the Labour frontbencher Angela Eagle to "calm down, dear" as she berated him for misleading MPs at prime minister's questions.
  • (11) Certainly not ones with young children accused of non-violent crimes.
  • (12) Analysis of official registers reveals the 38 companies in the first wave of the initiative – more than two-thirds of which are based overseas – have collectively had 698 face-to-face meetings with ministers under the current government, prompting accusations of an over-cosy relationship between corporations and ministers.
  • (13) I never accuse a student of plagiarizing unless I have proof, almost always in the form of sources easily found by Googling a few choice phrases.
  • (14) And any Labour commitment on spending is fatally undermined by their deficit amnesia.” Davey widened the attack on the Tories, following a public row this week between Clegg and Theresa May over the “snooper’s charter”, by accusing his cabinet colleague Eric Pickles of coming close to abusing his powers by blocking new onshore developments against the wishes of some local councils.
  • (15) He said he was appalled by the player's accusations and plans to meet with Martin on Wednesday at an undisclosed location.
  • (16) For a union that, in less than 25 years, has had to cope with the end of the cold war, the expansion from 12 to 28 members, the struggle to create a single currency and, most recently, the eurozone crisis, such a claim risks accusations of hyperbole.
  • (17) Fred Goodwin was an accountant and no one ever accused the former chief executive of RBS of consuming mind-alterating substances – unless you count over-inhaling his own ego.
  • (18) His words earned a stinging rebuke from first lady Michelle Obama , but at a Friday rally in North Carolina he said of one accuser, Jessica Leeds: “Yeah, I’m gonna go after you.
  • (19) The Iranians have accused the Israelis and the US of designing and deploying Stuxnet, which set some of their centrifuges spinning out of control.
  • (20) Does parliamentary privilege really mean that the four accused should not face trial?

Plaint


Definition:

  • (n.) Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament.
  • (n.) An accusation or protest on account of an injury.
  • (n.) A private memorial tendered to a court, in which a person sets forth his cause of action; the exhibiting of an action in writing.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He suggests that this is the dynamic that drives unthinking partisan allegiance ("What's most distinctive about the current presidential election and our political culture [is] … how unconditionally so many partisans back their side's every edict, plaint and stratagem"), as well as numerous key political frauds, from Saddam's WMDs to Obama's fake birth certificate to Romney's failure to pay taxes for 10 years.
  • (2) Ellie, by email As Ellie has perceptively summed up in her plaint, it would be easier to bring about peace in the Middle East this autumn than to find a fashion magazine that is not pushing pink coats.
  • (3) "Let us quit this indecent exercise of fatuous plaints, including raising hopes, even now, with talk of 'posthumous' conferment, when you know damned well that the Nobel committee does not indulge in such tradition.
  • (4) These consist either of slow- or delayed-release formulations of plaint 5-ASA (mesalazin) or sulpha-free azo-compounds of 5-ASA.
  • (5) This is not a plaint of the quasi-misogynistic and homophobic ones that have appeared in other, inferior rags, which can be summed up as "Liz 'That dress' Hurley turned Shane into a big queen".
  • (6) This is why it is worth carrying out.” Wilde was ever-dedicated to paradox – but this was one he sought to resolve with the familiar plaint: “Human nature will change.
  • (7) BALT magic catheter (PURSIL catheter) is a new catheter which is more flexible and plaint than the TRACKER-18 catheter because its mid-section and distal portion are made from polyurethane and silicon rather than polyethylene.
  • (8) They quote Sennett's plaint, "how can long-term purposes be pursued in a short-term society … how can a human being develop a narrative of identity and life history in a society composed of episodes and fragments".