press charges

press charges verb: to formally accuse a person of a crime, especially by an ordinary person.

Verb

press charges (third-person singular simple present presses charges, present participle pressing charges, simple past and past participle pressed charges)

To formally accuse a person of a crime, especially by an ordinary person.
- I'm pressing charges against you for assaulting me.
- Of course, I have no intention of pressing any charge!1942 June 16, Jerry Siegel, “The Case of the Crimeless Crimes”, in Action Comics, volume 1, number 51, page 10
Synonyms:

complain, accuse, file a complaint, file charges

press charges meaning in Thai

press charges in Thai

to formally accuse a person of a crime: แจ้งความ jɛ̂ɛng-kwaam, ดำเนินคดี dam-nəən-ká-dii

Synonyms of press charges

complain
accuse
file a complaint
file charges

Forms of press charges

third-person singular present	presses charges
present participle	pressing charges
past participle	pressed charges
past	pressed charges

Questions about press charges

What does press charges mean?: Press charges means to formally accuse a person of a crime, especially by an ordinary person.
What is press charges in Thai?: Press charges in Thai is แจ้งความ (jɛ̂ɛng-kwaam), ดำเนินคดี (dam-nəən-ká-dii). See Press charges meaning in Thai.
What part of speech is press charges?: Press charges is a verb.
What is the past tense of press charges?: The past tense of press charges is pressed charges.

Words near press charges in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: press charges (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “press charges.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/press_charges. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.