• IPA: /suː/

sue (sues, present participle suing; past and past participle sued)

1. (transitive) To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal action.
2. (ambitransitive) To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
3. (transitive, falconry, of a hawk) To clean (the beak, etc.).
4. (transitive, nautical) To leave high and dry on shore.

   to sue a ship

5. (obsolete, transitive) To court.
6. (obsolete, transitive) To follow.
   • a. 1472, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum iv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XIII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, OCLC 71490786 ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034 ↗:

     And the olde knyght seyde unto the yonge knyght, ‘Sir, swith me.’

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen, III. iv:

     though oft looking backward, well she vewd, / Her selfe freed from that foster insolent, / And that it was a knight, which now her sewd, / Yet she no lesse the knight feard, then that villein rude.

• German: verklagen, klagen
• Italian: fare causa, citare in giudizio
• Portuguese: processar, demandar
• Russian: пресле́довать в судебный
• Spanish: demandar

1. A diminutive of Susan and of related female given names; popular as a middle name.

• Russian: Сью

sue (plural sues)

1. (informal) A Mary Sue (type of character in fiction).