hold responsible

Meanings

1. 1phrasefixed phrase

   to say or decide that someone is to blame for something bad that happened

   Grammar: Takes a person as object after 'hold', then 'for' plus the bad thing: hold someone responsible for something.

   Patterns

   • hold someone responsible for something
   • hold yourself responsible for something
   • be held responsible for something

   The court held the driver responsible for the accident.

   If the project fails, they will hold the manager responsible.

   She holds herself responsible for not checking the figures.

2. 2phrasefixed phrase

   to consider someone or something to be the cause of a problem or to have a duty to deal with it

   Grammar: Often used in passive: 'be held responsible for' means people in authority blame you.

   Patterns

   • be held responsible for something
   • hold someone responsible for doing something

   No one was held responsible for the leak of information.

   Parents are often held responsible for their children's behavior.

Common combinations

hold someone responsible

The teacher held the whole class responsible for the noise.

be held responsible

He was held responsible for the damage.

hold someone responsible for

They held the company responsible for the pollution.

hold yourself responsible

Don't hold yourself responsible for everything that goes wrong.

Synonyms and how they differ

blame

Blame is more direct and common in everyday speech: 'Don't blame me.' Hold responsible sounds more official and suggests a judgment.

accuse

Accuse means saying someone did something wrong, often a crime; hold responsible is about duty or blame for a result.

attribute

Attribute means saying something is caused by something else, but it does not carry the idea of blame that hold responsible does.

Opposites

Word family

responsibility noun

The state of being the person who must deal with something or who is to blame.

responsible adjective

Having the duty to deal with something or being the cause of something.

Commonly confused: hold responsible or hold accountable?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “hold responsible”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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