Search the Dictionary

ion, etc.; to degrade; to lower; to deteriorate; to abase; as, to debase the character by crime; to debase the mind by frivolity; to debase style by vulgar words. The coin which was adulterated and debased. Hale. It is a kind of taking God's name in vain to debase religion with such frivolous disputes. Hooker. And to d…

To carry abroad; to spread; to make public. When the crime is delated or notorious. Jer. Taylor.

Failure or omission of duty; a fault; a misdeed; an offense; a misdemeanor; a crime. The delinquencies of the little commonwealth would be represented in the most glaring colors. Motley.

r neglects to perform his duty; an offender or transgressor; one who commits a fault or a crime; a culprit. A delinquent ought to be cited in the place or jurisdiction where the delinquency was committed. Ayliffe.

aken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army. Bancroft.

To uncover; to discover; to find out; to bring to light; as, to detect a crime or a criminal; to detect a mistake in an account. Plain good intention . . . is as easily discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at last. Burke. Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment…

Fitted for, or skilled in, detecting; employed in detecting crime or criminals; as, a detective officer.

e like; to disclaim; to disown; as, he was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime. A solemn promise made and disavowed. Dryden.

That which disqualifies; that which incapacitates or makes unfit; as, conviction of crime is a disqualification of a person for office; sickness is a disqualification for labor. I must still retain the consciousness of those disqualifications which you have been pleased to overlook. Sir J. Shore.

nce beauty or kindness; hence, also, to render more heinous; to aggravate; as, to enhance crime. The reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated. Southey.

ng increased; augmentation; aggravation; as, the enhancement of value, price, enjoyments, crime.

enormous; especially, an exceeding offense against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime; flagitious villainy; an atrocity. These clamorous enormities which are grown too big and strong for law or shame. South.

Exceedingly wicked; outrageous; atrocious; monstrous; as, an enormous crime. That detestable profession of a life so enormous. Bale.

accusation, charge, or interrogation; artful means of eluding. Thou . . . by evasions thy crime uncoverest more. Milton.

ment or the people. [U. S. ] -- To turn King's, Queen's or State's evidence, to confess a crime and give evidence against one's accomplices.

The act of exculpating from alleged fault or crime; that which exculpates; excuse. These robbers, however, were men who might have made out a strong case in exculpation of themselves. Southey.

tisfaction for; to atone for; to make amends for; to make expiation for; as, to expiate a crime, a guilt, or sin. To expiate his treason, hath naught left. Milton. The Treasurer obliged himself to expiate the injury. Clarendon.

The act of making satisfaction or atonement for any crime or fault; the extinguishing of guilt by suffering or penalty. His liberality seemed to have something in it of self-abasement and expiation. W. Irving.

that effect; but in its true application, as employed in American law, it relates only to crimes, and signifies a law which retroacts, by way of criminal punishment, upon that which was not a crime before its passage, or which raises the grade of an offense, or renders an act punishable in a more severe manner that it…

lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; -- opposed to aggravate. But fortune there extenuates the crime. Dryden. Let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality. I. Taylor.