CRIME • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Crime

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/kraɪm/ Listen

noun

Crime n.

1.

Any violation of law, either divine or human; an omission of a duty commanded, or the commission of an act forbidden by law.

2.

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. "To part error from crime." Note: 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.

3.

Any great wickedness or sin; iniquity. "No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love."

4.

That which occasion crime. (Obs.) "The tree of life, the crime of our first father's fall."

Capital crime, a crime punishable with death.

Synonyms: Sin; vice; iniquity; wrong. Crime, Sin,Vice. Sin is the generic term, embracing wickedness of every kind, but specifically denoting an offense as committed against God. Crime is strictly a violation of law either human or divine; but in present usage the term is commonly applied to actions contrary to the laws of the State. Vice is more distinctively that which springs from the inordinate indulgence of the natural appetites, which are in themselves innocent. Thus intemperance, unchastity, duplicity, etc., are vices; while murder, forgery, etc., which spring from the indulgence of selfish passions, are crimes.

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Etymology of 'Crime'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Crime" Quotes from Famous Books

... could not bear to have the day come to an end. The doctor spoke to her as if she were grown up and understood everything, and this pleased her. It is very hard to be constantly reminded that one is a child, as if it were a crime against society. Dr. Leslie, unlike many others, did not like children because they were children; he now and then made friends with one, just as he added now and then to his narrow circle of grown ...

— A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett

... returned the abbe. "Come back at midnight. I shall be ready to celebrate the only funeral service that it is in our power to offer in expiation of the crime ...

— An Episode Under the Terror • Honore de Balzac

... to have any doubt on that point—and then in conclusion I would add that after Southern California, I knew I wouldn't care for the climate Up There. Then I would step serenely off into eternity, secure in the belief that, no matter how heinous my crime might have been, all the local papers would give ...

— Roughing it De Luxe • Irvin S. Cobb

... hills the crime of infidelity among wives is almost unknown; so also harlots and courtesans are ...

— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck

... of furze sticking to it. She picked these off; and as she did so, accurate remembrance and simple recollection of facts returned to her, and the succession was so complete that the effect was equivalent to a re-enduring of the crime, and with a foreknowledge of it, as if to sharpen its horror and increase the sense of the pollution. The vague hills, the vague sea, the sweet glow of evening—she saw it all again. And as if afraid that her brain, now strained like a body on the rack, would ...

— Celibates • George Moore

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