take to court

idiomatic phrase

: to bring (someone) before a court of law

… French prosecutors called the clumsy operation criminal and took him to court.

—Robert B. Cullen

especially : sue sense 1a

… a man who flees to a foreign country cannot be extradited to face his bills. But he can't come home again either, unless he is willing to risk having his creditors take him to court to collect what he owes them.

—Philip Herrera

Examples of take to court in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This month’s Mason Avenue shooting was handled by Area 5 detectives, who have pushed for charges in a number of high-profile cases over the last year that prosecutors wouldn’t immediately take to court, forcing police instead to continue working the cases. —Jeremy Gorner, chicagotribune.com, 8 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above