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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sue.

To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal (civil) action.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/sjuː//sɪu̯/Wales/suː//ʃuː/
  1. To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal (civil) action.

    transitive
    sue someone for selling a faulty product
    I plan to sue you for everything you have.
  2. To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.

    ambitransitive
    The king of Bimsa sued for peace after Nynal's armies overran his territory; he knew any further resistance would only harm the common people.
  3. To clean (the beak, etc.).

    transitive
  4. To leave high and dry on shore.

    transitive
    to sue a ship
  5. To court.

    obsolete · transitive
  6. To follow.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English seuen, sewen, siwen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suer, siwer et al. and Old French sivre (“to follow after”) (modern French suivre), from Vulgar Latin *sequere (“to follow”), from Latin sequi. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Doublet of segue. Related to suit.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.