hold (someone) responsible

idiom

: to blame
If the plan fails I will hold you responsible.
often + for
He holds me responsible for the project's failure.

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web Cox eventually brought state and federal suits to hold responsible those who had beaten him. Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 13 July 2022 State and federal authorities in recent years have bolstered efforts to hold responsible careless campers, fireworks users and public lands target-shooters, seeking firefighting costs that can reach millions of dollars. Keith Ridler, ajc, 28 Sep. 2022 Rajapaksa, 73, had refused to step aside for months even as public fury mounted against his family, whom many people hold responsible for the country’s economic ruin. Hafeel Farisz, Washington Post, 13 July 2022 Thirty-two out of the council’s 47 members backed the probe, which aims to hold responsible parties accountable if violations have occurred. Forbes Staff Reports, Forbes, 4 Mar. 2022 Backers, including the ACLU of Maryland, contended that giving a police chief sole power over discipline would give the community a single person to hold responsible for how officers are — or are not — held accountable over allegations of misconduct or brutality. Bryn Stole, baltimoresun.com, 4 Mar. 2021 Pineda's lawsuit is among the first legal actions brought against the state's energy providers as Texans wrestle with who to hold responsible for dozens of deaths and billions in damages in last week's catastrophic outages. Andrea Salcedo, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Feb. 2021 As libel cases kept coming to courts, lawmakers had to decide who to hold responsible for that content, said Victoria Ekstrand, associate professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Elizabeth Thompson, Dallas News, 23 Oct. 2020 DeJoy has quickly replaced Vladimir Putin as the man that progressive opinion will hold responsible if President Donald Trump wins a second term in November. Rich Lowry, National Review, 18 Aug. 2020 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hold (someone) responsible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near hold (someone) responsible

Cite this Entry

“Hold (someone) responsible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hold%20%28someone%29%20responsible. Accessed 10 Jun. 2023.

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