The Collaborative International Dictionary
Criminal \Crim"i*nal\ (kr?m"?-nal), a. [L. criminalis, fr. crimen: cf. F. criminel. See Crime.]
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Guilty of crime or sin.
The neglect of any of the relative duties renders us criminal in the sight of God.
--Rogers. -
Involving a crime; of the nature of a crime; -- said of an act or of conduct; as, criminal carelessness.
Foppish and fantastic ornaments are only indications of vice, not criminal in themselves.
--Addison. -
Relating to crime; -- opposed to civil; as, the criminal code.
The officers and servants of the crown, violating the personal liberty, or other right of the subject . . . were in some cases liable to criminal process.
--Hallam.Criminal action (Law), an action or suit instituted to secure conviction and punishment for a crime.
Criminal conversation (Law), unlawful intercourse with a married woman; adultery; -- usually abbreviated, crim. con.
Criminal law, the law which relates to crimes.
Wiktionary
n. (context legal English) Unlawful sexual intercourse with a married person; adultery.
WordNet
n. extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes with marriage relations; "adultery is often cited as grounds for divorce" [syn: adultery, fornication]
Wikipedia
At common law, criminal conversation, commonly known as crim. con., is a tort arising from adultery, abolished in many jurisdictions.
It is similar to breach of promise, a tort involving a broken engagement against the betrothed, and alienation of affection, a tort action brought by a deserted spouse against a third party.
Usage examples of "criminal conversation".
And then there is the idea of bolting and letting him sue me for crim con - for damages for criminal conversation.
It was not a matter of gathering evidence for a criminal conversation case or a divorce with Diana as the guilty party as I thought straight away, but something to do with Mrs Oakes: debts, I have little doubt.
He reflected on Sophie's general attitude towards these matters - her extreme disapproval of any irregularity, any levity in speaking of even a looseness that reached nowhere near as far as criminal conversation - for her looseness in conversation was criminal, almost in the lawyer's sense of the term.
None of the other officers in the wardroom offered an opinion--their silence was significant--and in the turmoil of the succeeding years Jack would scarcely have remembered Clonfert but for the noise he made sometimes in the newspapers, as when he was cast in damages for criminal conversation with Mrs Jennings, or on the occasion of his court-martial for striking another officer on the quarterdeck of HMS Ramillies, and sometimes more creditably in the Gazette.