Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "convict" []

  • Law To find or prove (someone) guilty of an offense or crime, especially by the verdict of a court: The jury convicted the defendant of manslaughter. (verb-transitive)
  • To show or declare to be blameworthy; condemn: His remarks convicted him of a lack of sensitivity. (verb-transitive)
  • To make aware of one's sinfulness or guilt. (verb-transitive)
  • To return a verdict of guilty in a court: "We need jurors . . . who will not convict merely because they are suspicious” ( Scott Turow). (verb-intransitive)
  • Law A person found or declared guilty of an offense or crime. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "convict" in a sentence
  • "A mercenary spaceship ferrying a convict is attacked by a horde of unidentified fighter craft."
  • "But why rely on those generalizations when a convict is already being scrutinized at the individual level?"
  • "Billy had told her of the great perch Cal Hutchins caught on the day of the eclipse, when he had little dreamed the heart of his manhood would be spent in convict's garb."