crime
A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law.
Noun
- A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law.
- the commission of a crime
- The generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, can be duped into providing detailed advice on how to commit crimes — ranging from money laundering to the export of weapons to sanctioned countries — a tech startup found. - 2024...
Synonyms: criminal offence unlawfulness
- Any great sin or wickedness; iniquity.
- Those methods of saving money should be a crime.
- No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. - 1687 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Ode for Musick on St. Cecilia’s Day”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot,...
Synonyms: delinquency wrongdoing crime delict error malfeasance misdeed misdemeanor misdoing offense peccadillo sin tort tortfeasance transgression veniality wrong
- That which occasions crime.
- the tree of life, the crime of our first father's fall - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 46:
- Criminal acts collectively.
- an effort by the police to tackle crime in the city
- The State Department has given Ecuador $81 million since 2018 to help the country with its fight against organized crime and narcotics. - 2025 March 19, Hira Humayun and Michael Rios, “Ecuador’s president invites...
Synonyms: criminality delinquency
- The habit or practice of committing crimes.
- Crime doesn’t pay.
Origin
From Middle English cryme, crime, from Old French crime, crimne, from Latin crīmen. Displaced native Old English firen.
Forms
Synonyms
crime criminal offence criminality delinquency malefaction perpetration unlaw unlawfulness
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
crime against humanity crime against nature crime of passion crime tourism criminal act felony hate crime high crime international crime misdemeanor misdemeanour organised crime organized crime petty crime postcrime regulatory offence sex crime sexual offence summary crime time crime war crime white collar crime assault burglary
Derived
aftercrime anticrime autocrime biocrime capital crime consensual crime crimance crime buster crimebuster crime-buster crimebusting crime car crime doesn't pay crime fighter crime-fighter crimefighter crimefighting crime-free crimefree crimeful crime index crimeless crimelike crime lord
Verb
- To subject to disciplinary punishment.
- Nevertheless, in the course of a few days he is again intoxicated, creates disturbance in his quarters, is confined by his sergeant, crimed, and brought before the commanding officer […] - 1846, John Mercier McMullen,...
- To commit crime.
- If, during the 1920s, the master criminal was a gamester, criming for self expression, during the 1930s he performed in other ways for other purposes. - 1987, Robert Sampson, Yesterday's Faces: From the Dark Side,...