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career criminal

American  
[ker-eer krim-uh-nuhl] / kərˈɪər ˈkrɪm ə nəl /

noun

career criminals plural
  1. a person who has committed numerous crimes, particularly one who makes a living through criminal activity.


Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Not everybody has the resilience—or luck—to survive like Lily Dillon, the career criminal in “The Grifters” and one of Thompson’s fiercest characters.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026

By its very nature the justice system is glacial, methodical, punctilious, and backward-looking in ways that make keeping up with the well-resourced, wealthy career criminal supremely challenging.

From Slate • Oct. 25, 2024

He described McSweeney as a "career criminal" who had been in and out of jail since the age of 16 and said that he "should have been considered a high-risk-of-serious-harm offender".

From BBC • Oct. 19, 2023

After hearing from both sides, Hillsborough Superior Court Judge Amy Messer sentenced Montgomery to at least 30 years in prison and up to 60 years on the charges of being an armed career criminal.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 7, 2023

The use of Thug’s lyrics to portray him as a career criminal is a frequent tactic for prosecutors, said Dina LaPolt, a music industry attorney and member of the advocacy group Black Music Action Coalition.

From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2022

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