Definition of "crime" []

• An act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it and for which punishment is imposed upon conviction. (noun)
• Unlawful activity: statistics relating to violent crime. (noun)
• A serious offense, especially one in violation of morality. (noun)
• An unjust, senseless, or disgraceful act or condition: It's a crime to squander our country's natural resources. (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.

• ""It would be a crime -- a _crime_ to marry him," the heart-broken girl sobbed, when she reached the privacy of her own room."
• "Not one single case of serious crime has been brought to my notice -- indeed, nothing that deserves the name of _crime_."
• ""It would be a crime -- a _crime_ -- to marry him," she said, with"