I. ˈkrimən ə l, -mnəl adjective
Etymology: Middle English cryminall, from Middle French or Late Latin; Middle French criminel, from Late Latin criminalis, from Latin crimin-, crimen crime + -alis -al — more at crime
1. : involving or being a crime
criminal carelessness
2. : relating to crime or its punishment
a criminal action
— distinguished from civil
3. : guilty of crime or serious offense
he created a government that was frankly criminal — Eric Linklater
criminal in the sight of God and man
4.
a. : reprehensible , blameworthy , disgraceful
she was a criminal idiot to marry a man with his record
it was one of those criminal adventures that marked the road of the Communist International during the twenties — D.J.Dallin
b. : excessive , extortionate
saddle horses to be had not too far from the campus, but the rates were absolutely criminal — Edward Newhouse
5. : of or suitable to a criminal
the twists of the criminal mind
6. : concerned with crime or criminal law
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: French criminel, from criminel, adjective
1. : one that has committed a crime : malefactor
2. : a person who has been convicted of one or more crimes
habitual criminals
Synonyms:
felon , convict , malefactor , culprit , delinquent : these words mean, in common, one guilty of a transgression or an offense, especially against the law. criminal designates one who commits some serious violation of the law, of public trust, or common decency, as vicious unwarranted attack, embezzlement, or murder. felon , the legal term for one popularly called a criminal, designates one guilty of a felony, which usually with legal exactness covers all lawbreaking punishable by death or prolonged confinement (as in a state penitentiary) and is distinguished from a misdemeanor
men were transported with the worst felons for poaching a few hares or pheasants — G.B.Shaw
the casual or accidental felon who is impelled into a misdeed by force of circumstances — R.S.Banay
convict designates one convicted of a crime or felony but has come more generally to signify any person serving a long prison term
the stranger turned out to be a convict who had escaped on the way to prison
a riot among convicts in a state penitentiary
malefactor signifies one who has committed an evil deed or serious offense but suggests little or no relation to courts or punishment
most of our malefactors, from statesmen to thieves — T.S.Eliot
a malefactor robbing small stores at night and setting fire to them
culprit often carries the weakened sense of one guilty of a crime
after the series of crimes, the police tried for several weeks to find the culprit
but more generally either suggests a trivial fault or offense, especially of a child
the culprits were two boys, one about 12 years old, the other about 10 — Green Peyton
or applies to a person or thing that causes some undesirable condition or situation
another group of supposed culprits who are being blamed for the present inflationary situation — T.O.Waage
the culprit holding up world peace and understanding — W.A.Lydgate
delinquent applies to an offender against duty or the law especially in a degree not constituting crime; in its present semilegal use, in application to juvenile offenders against civil or moral law, it usually implies a habitual tendency to commit certain offenses and contrasts with criminal in implying a sociological or psychological rather than judicial attitude toward the offender
whether a customer who has missed a payment is … a habitual delinquent — C.W.Phelps
we label as delinquents those who do not conform to the legal and moral codes of society — Federal Probation