Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb Law To initiate or pursue legal proceedings against (another party).
  • intransitive verb Archaic To court; woo.
  • intransitive verb Obsolete To make a petition to; appeal to; beseech.
  • intransitive verb Law To initiate or pursue legal proceedings; bring suit.
  • intransitive verb To make an appeal or entreaty.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To pursue a courtship; woo.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An old spelling of sew, sew, 2.
  • To follow; follow after; pursue; chase; follow in attendance; attend.
  • To follow up; follow out; continue.
  • To follow with entreaty; seek to persuade; entreat.
  • To seek after; try to win; seek the favor of; seek in marriage; woo.
  • To seek justice or right from by legal process; institute process in law against; prosecute in a civil action for the recovery of a real or supposed right: as, to sue one for debt; to sue one for damages in trespass.
  • To follow; come after, either as a consequence or in pursuit.
  • To make entreaty; entreat; petition; plead: usually with for.
  • To pay court, or pay one's addresses as a suitor or lover; play the lover; woo, or be a wooer.
  • To prosecute; make legal claim; seek for something in law: as, to sue for damages.
  • To issue; flow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
  • intransitive verb (Law) To prosecute; to make legal claim; to seek (for something) in law.
  • intransitive verb To woo; to pay addresses as a lover.
  • intransitive verb (Naut.) To be left high and dry on the shore, as a ship.
  • transitive verb To follow up; to chase; to seek after; to endeavor to win; to woo.
  • transitive verb To seek justice or right from, by legal process; to institute process in law against; to bring an action against; to prosecute judicially.
  • transitive verb To proceed with, as an action, and follow it up to its proper termination; to gain by legal process.
  • transitive verb (Falconry) To clean, as the beak; -- said of a hawk.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) To leave high and dry on shore.
  • transitive verb (Law) to petition for and take out, or to apply for and obtain.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete, transitive To follow.
  • verb transitive To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal action.
  • verb transitive To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To court.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb institute legal proceedings against; file a suit against
  • noun French writer whose novels described the sordid side of city life (1804-1857)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sewen, from Anglo-Norman suer, from Vulgar Latin *sequere, to follow, from Latin sequī; see sekw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman suer, siwer et al., Old French sivre ("follow after") ( > French suivre), from Vulgar Latin *sequere ("follow"), from Latin sequi.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sue.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Runaround Sue by Dion and the Belmonts

    February 8, 2008

  • And "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.

    February 9, 2008

  • If we include Lola, we must include Sue...

    February 9, 2008