CRIMINAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Criminal

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/krˈɪmənəl/ Listen

adjective

Criminal adj.

Guilty of crime or sin. "The neglect of any of the relative duties renders us criminal in the sight of God."

Involving a crime; of the nature of a crime; said of an act or of conduct; as, criminal carelessness. "Foppish and fantastic ornaments are only indications of vice, not criminal in themselves."

Relating to crime; opposed to civil; as, the criminal code. "The officers and servants of the crown, violating the personal liberty, or other right of the subject... were in some cases liable to criminal process."

Criminal action (Law), an action or suit instituted to secure conviction and punishment for a crime.

Criminal conversation (Law), unlawful intercourse with a married woman; adultery; usually abbreviated, crim. con.

Criminal law, the law which relates to crimes.

noun

Criminal n. One who has commited a crime; especially, one who is found guilty by verdict, confession, or proof; a malefactor; a felon.

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Etymology of 'Criminal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Criminal" Quotes from Famous Books

... here advocated, a general disarmament would be the last thing to be desired. The possible member of a posse must bear arms to be effective. Armaments may have to be limited and controlled by international decree, but to disarm a nation would be as criminal and foolish as it would be to take away all weapons from the law-abiding citizens of a mining town as a preliminary to calling upon them to assist in the arrest of ...

— A Librarian's Open Shelf • Arthur E. Bostwick

... is as like to suffer as the guilty. Here, for altogether harmless men to suffer punishment in place of rogues is quite unheard-of; though occasionally one notorious evildoer may be punished for another's crime when this is great and the real criminal cannot be found and there is call for an example to be made upon the instant. This generally happens when a foreign consul interferes, demanding vengeance for some slight offence against his nationals. Things like that ...

— Oriental Encounters - Palestine and Syria, 1894-6 • Marmaduke Pickthall

... nefarious traffic and deception, practised by mercenary dealers, that of adulterating the articles intended for human food with ingredients deleterious to health, is the most criminal, and, in the mind of every honest man, must excite feelings of regret and disgust. Numerous facts are on record, of human food, contaminated with poisonous ingredients, having been vended to the public; and the annals of medicine ...

— A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons • Fredrick Accum

... universal; perhaps even went so far as to question the literal accuracy of the story of Eve's temptation, or of Balaam's ass; and, from the horror of the tones in which they were mentioned, I should have been justified in drawing the conclusion that these rash men belonged to the criminal classes. At the same time, those who were more directly responsible for providing me with the knowledge essential to the right guidance of life (and who sincerely desired to do so), imagined they were discharging that most sacred duty by impressing upon my childish mind the necessity, on ...

— Collected Essays, Volume V - Science and Christian Tradition: Essays • T. H. Huxley

... actions for merely reporting proceedings before the police magistrates and in the law courts, and many a rascal solaced himself for the disagreeables attending a preliminary examination at the police court for a criminal offence, by a verdict in his behalf in a civil action against any newspaper that had been bold enough to print a report of the proceedings. This kind of action originated from a ruling of Lord Ellenborough, that it was 'libellous to publish the preliminary examination before ...

— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

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