prosecute

verb

1. (transitive)To start criminal proceedings against.

   “to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot”

   “To acquit themſelves and proſecute their foes”

2. (transitive)To charge, try.

   “The Vigilante is prosecuted in Federal Court under a lynch bill and winds up in a Federal Nut House specially designed for the containment of ghosts […]”

3. To seek to obtain by legal process.

   “to prosecute a right or a claim in a court of law”

4. (transitive)To pursue something to the end.

   “to prosecute a scheme, hope, or an investigation”

   “I am beloved of beauteous Hermia; / Why should not I, then, prosecute my right?”

   “Nor do we believe that a country that prosecuted two wars in China in the 19th century to force the Chinese to accept opium imports has any moral right to lecture Asians on drugs.”