From Middle English seuen, sewen, siwen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suer, siwer et al.

• IPA: /suː/, /sjuː/, /sɪu̯/

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

1. (transitive) To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal action.

   sue someone for selling a faulty product

   I plan to sue you for everything you have.

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.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum iv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XIII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC ↗:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     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: преследовать в судебный
• Spanish: demandar

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

• Russian: Сью

sue (plural sues)

1. (informal) Synonym of Mary Sue