CRIMINALIZE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does criminalize mean? 

• CRIMINALIZE (verb)
  The verb CRIMINALIZE has 2 senses:

1. treat as a criminal

2. declare illegal; outlaw

  Familiarity information: CRIMINALIZE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRIMINALIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they criminalize    ... he / she / it criminalizes   
Past simple: criminalized   
Past participle: criminalized   
-ing form: criminalizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Treat as a criminal

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "criminalize" is one way to...):

do by; handle; treat (interact in a certain way)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

criminal (someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Declare illegal; outlaw

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

criminalise; criminalize; illegalise; illegalize; outlaw

Context example:

Marijuana is criminalized in the U.S.

Hypernyms (to "criminalize" is one way to...):

disallow; forbid; interdict; nix; prohibit; proscribe; veto (command against)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "criminalize"):

ban; censor (forbid the public distribution of ( a movie or a newspaper))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

decriminalize (make legal)