Crime

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

Crime, n. [F. crime, fr. L. crimen judicial decision, that which is subjected to such a decision, charge, fault, crime, fr. the root of cernere to decide judicially. See Certain.].

•  Any violation of law, either divine or human; an omission of a duty commanded, or the commission of an act forbidden by law.  [1913 Webster]
•  Gross violation of human law, in distinction from a misdemeanor or trespass, or other slight offense. Hence, also, any aggravated offense against morality or the public welfare; any outrage or great wrong.  Tennyson.  [1913 Webster]

  " Crimes, in the English common law, are grave offenses which were originally capitally punished (murder, rape, robbery, arson, burglary, and larceny), as distinguished from misdemeanors, which are offenses of a lighter grade. See Misdemeanors."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any great wickedness or sin; iniquity.  [1913 Webster]

  "No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which occasion crime.  [1913 Webster]

  "The tree of life, the crime of our first father's fall."  [1913 Webster]

Capital crime, a crime punishable with death.

Syn. -- Sin; vice; iniquity; wrong.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Crime, n. & v.
--n.
1 a an offence punishable by law. b illegal acts as a whole (resorted to crime).
2 an evil act (a crime against humanity).
3 colloq. a shameful act (a crime to tease them).
4 a soldier's offence against military regulations.
--v.tr. Mil. etc. charge with or convict of an offence.

Idiom

crime-sheet Mil. a record of a defendant's offences. crime wave a sudden increase in crime. crime-writer a writer of detective fiction or thrillers.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L crimen -minis judgement, offence

THESAURUS

Crime

atrocity, breach, break, crime against humanity, criminal tendency, criminality, criminosis, deadly sin, delict, delinquency, dereliction, enormity, error, evil, evil courses, evildoing, failure, fault, feloniousness, felony, genocide, guilty act, heavy sin, illegality, impropriety, indiscretion, inexpiable sin, infringement, iniquity, injury, injustice, lapse, lawbreaking, lawlessness, malefaction, malfeasance, malpractice, malum, malversation, minor wrong, misconduct, misdeed, misdemeanor, misdoing, misfeasance, misprision, misprision of treason, mortal sin, nonfeasance, offense, omission, outrage, peccadillo, peccancy, positive misprision, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act, slip, thou scarlet sin, tort, transgression, trespass, trip, unutterable sin, venial sin, vice, viciousness, violation, wrong, wrong conduct, wrongdoing

ROGET THESAURUS

Crime

Vice

N vice, evil-doing, evil courses, wrongdoing, wickedness, viciousness, iniquity, peccability, demerit, sin, Adam, old Adam, offending Adam, immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals, enphagy, dophagy, exophagy, want of principle, want of ballast, obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity, depravity, pollution, hardness of heart, brutality, corruption, knavery, profligacy, flagrancy, atrocity, cannibalism, lesbianism, Sadism, infirmity, weakness, weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection, error, weak side, foible, failing, failure, crying sin, besetting sin, defect, deficiency, cloven foot, lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den, gusto picaresco, fault, crime, criminality, sinner, brothel, gambling house, joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house, vicious, sinful, sinning, wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal, naughty, incorrect, unduteous, undutiful, unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores, indecorous, unseemly, improper, dissolute, profligate, scampish, unworthy, worthless, desertless, disgraceful, recreant, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, discreditable, disreputable, Sadistic, base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous, flagrant, flagitious, atrocious, incarnate, accursed, Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish, miscreated, misbegotten, demoralized, corrupt, depraved, evil-minded, evil-disposed, ill-conditioned, malevolent, heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless, abandoned, lost to virtue, unconscionable, sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity, incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for, culpable, reprehensible, unjustifiable, indefensible, inexcusable, inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible, weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect, indiscrete, demoralizing, degrading, wrong, sinfully, without excuse, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, genus est mortis male vivere, mala mens malus animus, nemo repente fuit turpissimus, the trail of the serpent is over them all, to sanction vice and hunt decorum down.

Guilt

N guilt, guiltiness, culpability, criminality, criminousness, deviation from rectitude, sinfulness, misconduct, misbehavior, misdoing, misdeed, malpractice, fault, sin, error, transgression, dereliction, delinquency, indiscretion, lapse, slip, trip, faux pas, peccadillo, flaw, blot, omission, failing, failure, break, bad break!, capital crime, delictum, offense, trespass, misdemeanor, misfeasance, misprision, malefaction, malfeasance, malversation, crime, felony, enormity, atrocity, outrage, deadly sin, mortal sin, deed without a name, corpus delicti, guilty, to blame, culpable, peccable, in fault, at fault, censurable, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, illaudable, weighed in the balance and found wanting, exceptionable, in flagrante delicto, red-handed, in the very act, with one's hand in the cookie jar, cui prodest scelus in fecit, culpam paena premit comes, O would the deed were good!, responsibility prevents crimes se judice nemo noce, so many laws argues so many sins.