Accusa'tion. n.s. [from accuse.]

1. The act of accusing.

   Thus they in mutual accusation spent
   The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning,
   And of their vain contest appear'd no end. Milt. Par. Lost.

2. The charge brought against any one by the accuser.

                                 You read
   These accusations, and these grievous crimes
   Committed by your person, and your followers. Shakespeare's Richard II.

   All accusation, in the very nature of the thing, still supposing, and being founded upon some law: for where there is no law, there can be no transgression; and where there can be no transgression, I am sure there ought to be no accusation. South.

3. In the sense of the courts —

   A declaration of some crime preferred before a competent judge, by the intervention of an inscription lawfully made, in order to inflict some judgment on the guilty person. Ayl. Parer.