account (redirected from gives a bad account)

according to all accounts and by all accounts

from all the reports [that are available]; according to what everyone is saying. According to all accounts, the police were on the scene immediately. By all accounts, it was a very poor performance.

See also: accord

account for someone or something

to know the state of or whereabouts of someone or something. (Usually in reference to some person or thing placed in one's charge.) They cannot account for three of the passengers.

account for something

to explain something. Your explanation accounts for everything that has happened.

balance the accounts 

1. Lit. and balance the books to determine through bookkeeping that accounts are in balance, that all money is accounted for. Jane was up all night balancing the accounts. The cashier was not allowed to leave the bank until the manager balanced the books.

2. Fig. to get even [with someone]. Tom hit Bob. Bob balanced the accounts by breaking Tom's toy car. Once we have balanced the accounts, we can shake hands and be friends again.

See also: balance

blow-by-blow account and blow-by-blow description

Fig. a detailed description (of an event) given as the event takes place. (This referred originally to reporting on boxing.) I want to listen to a blow-by-blow account of the prizefight. The lawyer got the witness to give a blow-by-blow description of the argument.

bring someone to account

Fig. to confront someone with a record of misdeeds and errors. The committee decided to bring Martha to account. Martha was brought to account by the committee.

See also: bring

call someone to account

to ask one to explain and justify one's behavior, policy, performance, etc. The sergeant called the police officer to account. I called my workers to account for the accident.

See also: call

cook the accounts and cook the books

to cheat in bookkeeping; to make the accounts appear to balance when they do not. Jane was charged with cooking the accounts of her mother's store. It's hard to tell whether she really cooked the accounts or just didn't know what she was doing.

See also: cook

give a good account of oneself

Fig. to do (something) well or thoroughly. John gave a good account of himself when he gave his speech last night. Mary was not feeling well, and she didn't give a good account of herself in last night's game.

See also: give, good, oneself

give an account (of someone or something) (to someone) and give someone an account of someone or something

to tell a narrative about someone or something to someone. You are going to have to give an account of yourself to your parole officer. Please give an account of your day to my secretary. Give me an account of every minute.

See also: give

on someone's account

because of someone. Don't do it on my account. They were late on Jane's account.

on account

[money paid or owed] on a debt. I paid twelve dollars on account last month. Wasn't that enough? I still have $100 due on account.

on any account

for any purpose; for any reason; no matter what. On any account, I'll be there on time. This doesn't make sense on any account.

See also: any

on no account and not on any account

for no reason; absolutely not. On no account will I lend you the money. Will I say I'm sorry? Not on any account.

square accounts (with someone)

1. Lit. to settle one's financial accounts with someone. I have to square accounts with the bank this week, or it'll take back my car. I called the bank and said I needed to come in and square accounts.

2. Fig. to get even with someone; to straighten out a misunderstanding with someone. I'm going to square accounts with Tom. He insulted me in public, and he owes mean apology. Tom, you and I are going to have to square accounts.

See also: square

take someone or something into account and take into account someone or something

to remember to consider someone or something. I hope you'll take Bill and Bob into account when you plan the party. I'll try to take into account all the things that are important in a situation like this.

See also: take

take something into account and take something into consideration

to consider something to be an important factor in some decision. We will take your long years of service into account when we make our final decision. You can be certain that we will take it into consideration.

See also: take

take account of someone or something

to pay attention to someone or something. You should take account of Tom. He has some good advice. Do I have to take account of the new policies?

See also: take

turn something to good account

to use something in such a way that it is to one's advantage; to make good use of a situation, experience, etc. Pam turned her illness to good account and did a lot of reading. Many people turn their retirement time to good account and take up interesting hobbies.

See also: good, turn

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be brought/called to account  (formal)

to be forced to explain something you did wrong, and usually to be punished What concerns us most is that the people responsible for the violence should be brought to account.

See also: brought

on somebody's account

if you do something on someone's account, you do it because of that person Don't cook anything special on my account. I'm not even very hungry.

on your own account

if you do something on your own account, you do it by yourself or for yourself I decided to ask a few questions about the accident on my own account.

on no account must/should somebody do something   (formal)

if you tell someone that on no account must they do something, you mean that they must never, for any reason do that thing On no account must the contents of this document be shown to any other person.

See also: must

take something/somebody into account  also take account of something/somebody

to think about something or someone when you are making a decision or a judgement I hope they'll take her age into account when they're judging her work. (often + that ) They took into account that he'd never been in trouble before. Her book takes no account of (= does not consider) recent research carried out in America.

See also: take

turn/use something to good account  (formal)

to use something to produce good results She turned her natural curiosity to good account by becoming a detective.

See be in good books, It's no good crying over spilt milk, while the going is good, hold good, if knows what's good for, stand in good stead, throw good money after bad, You can't keep a good man down, What's sauce for the goose, be no good to man or beast, One good turn deserves another, good and proper

See also: good, turn

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account for something

1. to explain the reason for something More police on the streets accounted for less street crime.

2. to form the total of an amount of something In Florida, people over 60 account for more than 25 percent of the population.

call to account (slightly formal)

to be forced to accept responsibility for something Davis published top-secret government information, but he was never called to account for this.

See also: call

on account of something

because of something Mrs. Popper's vacation in Frankfurt had to be cancelled on account of her husband's illness.

take something into account also take account of something

to include something when making a decision or judgment Salespeople have to take into account the differences between their customers.

Related vocabulary: allow for something Opposite of: take no account of something

See also: take

take no account of something

to not consider something Some teachers seem to take no account of their students' interests or experience.

Opposite of: take something into account

See also: take