sue

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb Law To initiate or pursue legal proceedings against (another party).
• intransitive verb Archaic To court; woo.
• intransitive verb Obsolete To make a petition to; appeal to; beseech.
• intransitive verb Law To initiate or pursue legal proceedings; bring suit.
• intransitive verb To make an appeal or entreaty.
• intransitive verb Archaic To pursue a courtship; woo.

from The Century Dictionary.

• An old spelling of sew, sew, 2.
• To follow; follow after; pursue; chase; follow in attendance; attend.
• To follow up; follow out; continue.
• To follow with entreaty; seek to persuade; entreat.
• To seek after; try to win; seek the favor of; seek in marriage; woo.
• To seek justice or right from by legal process; institute process in law against; prosecute in a civil action for the recovery of a real or supposed right: as, to sue one for debt; to sue one for damages in trespass.
• To follow; come after, either as a consequence or in pursuit.
• To make entreaty; entreat; petition; plead: usually with for.
• To pay court, or pay one's addresses as a suitor or lover; play the lover; woo, or be a wooer.
• To prosecute; make legal claim; seek for something in law: as, to sue for damages.
• To issue; flow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
• intransitive verb (Law) To prosecute; to make legal claim; to seek (for something) in law.
• intransitive verb To woo; to pay addresses as a lover.
• intransitive verb (Naut.) To be left high and dry on the shore, as a ship.
• transitive verb To follow up; to chase; to seek after; to endeavor to win; to woo.
• transitive verb To seek justice or right from, by legal process; to institute process in law against; to bring an action against; to prosecute judicially.
• transitive verb To proceed with, as an action, and follow it up to its proper termination; to gain by legal process.
• transitive verb (Falconry) To clean, as the beak; -- said of a hawk.
• transitive verb (Naut.) To leave high and dry on shore.
• transitive verb (Law) to petition for and take out, or to apply for and obtain.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb obsolete, transitive To follow.
• verb transitive To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal action.
• verb transitive To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
• verb obsolete, transitive To court.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb institute legal proceedings against; file a suit against
• noun French writer whose novels described the sordid side of city life (1804-1857)