criminal
part of speech
noun (a criminal, criminals); adjective (criminal)
meaning for a pupil
1) (noun) A person who has broken the law and done a crime. tree →
2) (adjective) To do with crime or with the law about crime (a criminal act, criminal law). tree →
3) (adjective, informal) Very wrong, wasteful or unfair: «It's criminal to waste all that food.» tree →
sense in the lessons
In civics, stories, history and safety (police catch criminals). In everyday speech, «criminal» also means shockingly bad or wasteful. Phrases: «a criminal record», «criminal offence», «a dangerous criminal», «criminal damage».
examples
- The police caught the criminal. tree →
- Stealing is a criminal act. tree →
- He has no criminal record. tree →
- It's criminal to throw away good food! tree →
- The detective tracked down the criminals. tree →
- Spraying graffiti on walls is criminal damage. tree →
- The hardened criminal casts an impatient look at the bright ray. tree →
note
Countable noun. Related: «crime», «criminally». In maths, crime figures are often compared (falls of a percentage). Being suspected is not the same as being a criminal — a person is innocent until proven guilty.
In the corpora
- "Known to police" means a person has a criminal record (a police list of crimes they were found guilty of).
- "Justice-involved" is a US official phrase for having a criminal record or past contact with the courts.
- "The ultimate penalty" means the death penalty: the law kills (executes) the criminal.
- Throwing stones at windows can injure people inside with flying glass, and it is a crime called criminal damage.
- In England and Wales a jury in a serious criminal trial is twelve ordinary adults; in Scotland it is fifteen.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «criminal» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.