convict

«convict» in Mova's school dictionary: for a court to decide officially that they are guilty of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (convict, convicts, convicted, convicting; stress on «-VICT»); noun (a convict, convicts; stress on «CON-»)

meaning for a pupil

1) To convict someone is for a court to decide officially that they are guilty of a crime. tree →

2) A convict is a person who has been found guilty and sent to prison. tree →

3) In history, convicts were prisoners sent to work far away, for example to Australia. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons in Australia and the UK, pupils learn that convicts were transported from Britain to Australia. In news and stories, courts convict criminals; a convict escapes from prison. Phrases: convicted of, escaped convict.

examples

• The court convicted him of theft. tree →
• The escaped convict was caught in the woods. tree →
• Thousands of convicts were sent to Australia long ago. tree →
• She was convicted of dangerous driving. tree →
• Convicts built many of the early roads. tree →
• You cannot be convicted without evidence. tree →

note

Stress changes the meaning: CON-vict (noun, the person), con-VICT (verb). Noun «conviction» also means a strong belief. «Convicted of» a crime, not «for».

In the corpora

• In November 2019 Prince Andrew stepped back from public duties after a BBC interview about his friendship with a man convicted of serious crimes.
• Why be a convict?
• In 1788 the First Fleet of eleven ships brought British convicts and soldiers to Sydney Cove to start a prison colony.
• From 1788 to 1868 Britain sent about 160,000 convicts on ships to Australia, a punishment called transportation, sometimes for quite small thefts.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «convict» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.