CRIME

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does crime mean? 

• CRIME (noun)
  The noun CRIME has 2 senses:

1. (criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act

2. an evil act not necessarily punishable by law

  Familiarity information: CRIME used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRIME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking

Context example:

a long record of crimes

Hypernyms ("crime" is a kind of...):

offence; offense (a transgression that constitutes a violation of what is judged to be right)

Domain category:

criminal law (the body of law dealing with crimes and their punishment)

Domain member category:

lift; rustle (take illegally)

shoplift (steal in a store)

hold up; stick up (rob at gunpoint or by means of some other threat)

mug (rob at gunpoint or with the threat of violence)

traffic (deal illegally)

pirate (copy illegally; of published material)

lift; plagiarise; plagiarize (take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech; of intellectual property)

crib (take unauthorized (intellectual material))

bribe; buy; corrupt; grease one's palms (make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence)

rake off (take money from an illegal transaction)

buy off; pay off (pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor)

loot; plunder (take illegally; of intellectual property)

smuggle (import or export without paying customs duties)

kick back (pay a kickback; make an illegal payment)

carjack (take someone's car from him by force, usually with the intention of stealing it)

ransom; redeem (exchange or buy back for money; under threat)

pyramid (use or deal in (as of stock or commercial transaction) in a pyramid deal)

black marketeer (deal on the black market)

push (sell or promote the sale of (illegal goods such as drugs))

fob off; foist off; palm off (sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive)

black market; run (deal in illegally, such as arms or liquor)

bootleg (sell illicit products such as drugs or alcohol)

scalp (sell illegally, as on the black market)

blackmail (obtain through threats)

extort (obtain through intimidation)

skyjack (subject an aircraft to air piracy)

commandeer; highjack; hijack; pirate (take arbitrarily or by force)

impress; shanghai (take (someone) against his will for compulsory service, especially on board a ship)

abduct; kidnap; nobble; snatch (take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crime"):

infraction; infringement; misdemeanor; misdemeanour; violation (a crime less serious than a felony)

war crime (a crime committed in wartime; violation of rules of war)

victimless crime (an act that is legally a crime but that seem to have no victims)

vice crime (a vice that is illegal)

high treason; lese majesty; treason (a crime that undermines the offender's government)

thuggery (violent or brutal acts as of thugs)

regulatory offence; regulatory offense; statutory offence; statutory offense (crimes created by statutes and not by common law)

Tazir crime ((Islam) minor crimes committed by Muslims; crimes that are not mentioned in the Koran so judges are free to punish the offender in any appropriate way)

attack; attempt (the act of attacking)

commission; committal; perpetration (the act of committing a crime)

barratry (the offense of vexatiously persisting in inciting lawsuits and quarrels)

mayhem (the willful and unlawful crippling or mutilation of another person)

highjack; hijack (seizure of a vehicle in transit either to rob it or divert it to an alternate destination)

Had crime ((Islam) serious crimes committed by Muslims and punishable by punishments established in the Koran)

fraud (intentional deception resulting in injury to another person)

forgery (criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud)

felony (a serious crime (such as murder or arson))

cybercrime (crime committed using a computer and the internet to steal a person's identity or sell contraband or stalk victims or disrupt operations with malevolent programs)

capital offense (a crime so serious that capital punishment is considered appropriate)

Derivation:

criminal (involving or being or having the nature of a crime)

criminalise (declare illegal; outlaw)

criminate; incriminate (bring an accusation against; level a charge against)

incriminate (suggest that someone is guilty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An evil act not necessarily punishable by law

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

crimes of the heart

Hypernyms ("crime" is a kind of...):

evildoing; transgression (the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle)

Derivation:

criminal (involving or being or having the nature of a crime)

incriminate (suggest that someone is guilty)

 Context examples 

Having got so far, my next step was, of course, to examine into the details of the crime, and to see how far they would help us.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That crime has been the origin of every lesser one, and of all his present discontents.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I said, they were fellows of desperate fortunes, forced to fly from the places of their birth on account of their poverty or their crimes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

If the police interview a witness to a crime, for example, their repeated questioning about selected details might lead the witness to forget information that could later prove important.

(Selective amnesia: how rats and humans are able to actively forget distracting memories, University of Cambridge)

I must take the view, your Grace, that when a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Drug abuse can lead to homelessness, crime, and missed work or problems with keeping a job.

(Drug Abuse, NIH: National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Two years had now nearly elapsed since the night on which he first received life; and was this his first crime?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There he intervened, and then it was, Colonel Walter, that to treason you added the more terrible crime of murder.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I will confess to my crime.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You will remember, as the only mitigation of his crime, that he was not yet one and twenty years of age.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)