Crime

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Crime \Crime\ (kr[imac]m), 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}.]
     1. 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]
  
     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." --Tennyson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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}.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Any great wickedness or sin; iniquity.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love.
                                                    --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. That which occasion crime. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The tree of life, the crime of our first father's
              fall.                                 --Spenser.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Capital crime}, a crime punishable with death.
  
     Syn: Sin; vice; iniquity; wrong.
  
     Usage: {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.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  crime
       n 1: (criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered
            an evil act; "a long record of crimes" [syn: {law-breaking}]
       2: an evil act not necessarily punishable by law; "crimes of
          the heart"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  73 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CRIME. A crime is an offence against a public law. This word, in its most 
  general signification, comprehends all offences but, in its limited sense, 
  it is confined to felony. 1 Chitty, Gen. Pr. 14. 
       2. The term misdemeanor includes every offence inferior to felony, but 
  punishable by indictment or by particular prescribed proceedings. 
       3. The term offence, also, may be considered as, having the same 
  meaning, but is usually, by itself, understood to be a crime not indictable 
  but punishable, summarily, or by the forfeiture of, a penalty. Burn's Just. 
  Misdemeanor. 
       4. Crimes are defined and punished by statutes and by the common law. 
  Most common law offences are as well known, and as precisely ascertained, as 
  those which are defined by statutes; yet, from the difficulty of exactly 
  defining and describing every act which ought to be punished, the vital and 
  preserving principle has been adopted, that all immoral acts which tend to 
  the prejudice of the community are punishable by courts of justice. 2 
  Swift's Dig. 
       5. Crimes are mala in se, or bad in themselves; and these include. all 
  offences against the moral law; or they are mala prohibita, bad because 
  prohibited, as being against sound policy; which, unless prohibited, would 
  be innocent or indifferent. Crimes may be classed into such as affect: 
       6.-1. Religion and public worship: viz. blasphemy, disturbing public 
  worship. 
       7.-2. The sovereign power: treason, misprision of treason. 
       8.-3. The current coin: as counterfeiting or impairing it. 
       9.-4. Public justice: 1. Bribery of judges or jurors, or receiving 
  the bribe. 2. Perjury. 3. Prison breaking. 4. Rescue. 5. Barratry. 6. 
  Maintenance. 7. Champerty. 8. Compounding felonies. 9. Misprision of 
  felonies. 10. Oppression. 11. Extortion. 12. Suppressing evidence. 13. 
  Negligence or misconduct in inferior officers. 14. Obstructing legal 
  process. 15. Embracery. 
      10.-5. Public peace. 1. Challenges to fight a duel. 2. Riots, routs 
  and unlawful  assemblies. 3. Affrays. 4. Libels. 
      11.-6. Public trade. 1. Cheats. 2. Forestalling. S. Regrating. 4. 
  Engrossing. 5. Monopolies. 
      12.-7. Chastity. 1. Sodomy. 2. Adultery. 3. Incest. 4. Bigamy. 5. 
  Fornication. 
      13.-8. Decency and morality. 1. Public indecency. 2. Drunkenness. 3. 
  Violating the grave. 
      14.-9. Public police and economy. 1. Common nuisances. 2. Keeping 
  disorderly houses and bawdy houses. 3. Idleness, vagrancy, and beggary. 
      15.-10. Public. policy. 1. Gambling. 2. Illegal lotteries.
      16.-11. Individuals. 1. Homicide, which is justifiable, excusable or 
  felonious. 2. Mayhem. 3. Rape. 4. Poisoning, with intent to murder. 5. 
  Administering drugs to a woman quick with child to cause, miscarriage. 6. 
  Concealing death of bastard child. 7. Assault and battery, which is either 
  simple or with intent to commit some other crime. 8. kidnapping. 9. False 
  imprisonment. 10. Abduction. 
      17.-12. Private property. 1. Burglary. 2. Arson. 3. Robbery. 4., 
  Forgery. Counterfeiting. 6. Larceny. 7. Receiving stolen goods, knowing them 
  to have been stolen, or theft-bote. 8. Malicious mischief. 
      18.-13. The public, individuals, or their property, according to the 
  intent of the criminal. 1. Conspiracy.