From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbring/call somebody to accountbring/call somebody to accountformal to force someone who is responsible for a mistake or a crime to explain publicly why they did it and punish them for it if necessary The people responsible for the accident have never been brought to account. → account
Examples from the Corpus
bring/call somebody to account• The people responsible for the accident must be brought to account.• It is a summary remedy which should enable a person in default to be brought swiftly to account.• Inevitably, Whitney and the board called him to account.• But when it was over, Cronin called me to account.• Promotion panels, search committees, nominating bodies, nobody calls them to account.• The debate is intended to bring the Government to account. 