CRIMINALISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does criminalise mean? 

• CRIMINALISE (verb)
  The verb CRIMINALISE has 1 sense:

1. declare illegal; outlaw

  Familiarity information: CRIMINALISE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRIMINALISE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they criminalise    ... he / she / it criminalises   
Past simple: criminalised   
Past participle: criminalised   
-ing form: criminalising   

Sense 1

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 "criminalise" is one way to...):

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

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

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

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

decriminalise (make legal)

Derivation:

crime ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)