Criminalise
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of criminalize. UK, alt-of, nonstandard
"As soon as it was suggested that it was considering the Swedish model – in which men are criminalised for buying sex, but the women working in prostitution are decriminalised – a slew of prominent male columnists started arguing against this infringement on a man's right to purchase a woman's body."
- 2 declare illegal; outlaw wordnet
Example
More examples"As soon as it was suggested that it was considering the Swedish model – in which men are criminalised for buying sex, but the women working in prostitution are decriminalised – a slew of prominent male columnists started arguing against this infringement on a man's right to purchase a woman's body."
Etymology
From criminal + -ise.
More for "criminalise"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.