Search the Dictionary

Guilty of crime or sin. The neglect of any of the relative duties renders us criminal in the sight of God. Rogers.

One versed in criminal law. [R.]

The quality or state of being criminal; that which constitutes a crime; guiltiness; guilt. This is by no means the only criterion of criminality. Blackstone.

In violation of law; wickedly.

Criminality. [R.]

In palmistry, applied to the line which marks the separation between the hand and the arm.

t of Alsatia or Alsace in Germany, or of Alsatia or White Friars (a resort of debtors and criminals) in London.

f which is not fixed by law, but left to the discretion of the court; as, the amerced the criminal in the sum on the hundred dollars.

To charge with a crime; to accuse; to institute a private criminal prosecution against for some heinous crime; as, to appeal a person of felony.

That may be accused or called to answer by appeal; as, a criminal is appealable for manslaughter. [Obs.]

Hence: To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest; as, to apprehend a criminal.

; magic. [Obs.] Shak. Art and part (Scots Law), share or concern by aiding and abetting a criminal in the perpetration of a crime, whether by advice or by assistance in the execution; complicity.

h, in cases of impeachment, performs the same office which an indictment does in a common criminal case. -- Articles of war, rules and regulations, fixed by law, for the better government of the army. -- In the article of death Etym: [L. in articulo mortis], at the moment of death; in the dying struggle. -- Lords of…

A court, the sitting or session of a court, for the trial of processes, whether civil or criminal, by a judge and jury. Blackstone. Wharton. Encyc. Brit.

A sanctuary or place of refuge and protection, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege. So sacred was the church to some, that it had the right of an asylum or sanctuary. Ayliffe.

d to a taking of the person by a civil process; being now rarely used for the arrest of a criminal. (b) To seize or take (goods or real estate) by virtue of a writ or precept to hold the same to satisfy a judgment which may be rendered in the suit. See Attachment, 4. The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treaso…

be capable of; that is, to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change. In all criminal cases the most favorable interpretation should be put on words that they can possibly bear. Swift.

The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively. [Obs.]

mployed to recover game or prey which has escaped wounded from a hunter, and for tracking criminals. Formerly it was used for pursuing runaway slaves. Other varieties of dog are often used for the same purpose and go by the same name. The Cuban bloodhound is said to be a variety of the mastiff.

A mark put upon criminals with a hot iron. Hence: Any mark of infamy or vice; a stigma. The brand of private vice. Channing.