give an account

phraseC1formal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To give an account is to describe what happened, in order, to somebody with a right to ask. A witness in a box, a treasurer at the end of the year.

It takes of, and the tone is formal and faintly legal. Account here is the telling rather than the bank kind, though both grew from the same idea of reckoning things up. A full and frank one is the fixed demand; by all accounts means according to what everybody says; and account for is a different phrase again, meaning explain, or make up a share of.

Definitions of give an account

1phrasegive an accountTo describe what happened.C1
“Each witness had to give an account of that evening.”

give an account is a telling of events.

Practised in Common Word Pairs

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give an account

phraseC1formal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To give an account is to describe what happened, in order, to somebody with a right to ask. A witness in a box, a treasurer at the end of the year.

Definitions of give an account

1phrasegive an accountTo describe what happened.C1
“Each witness had to give an account of that evening.”

give an account is a telling of events.

Practised in Common Word Pairs

Practise this word