crime against nature

noun

Law. sodomy.
any act considered to be against the laws or designs of nature or one's religious teachings.

Origin of crime against nature

First recorded in 1920–25

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

I do not go too far, when I call it the crime against nature, from which the soul recoils, and which language refuses to describe.
Charles Sumner; his complete works, volume 5 (of 20) | Charles Sumner
It is not a crime against nature; nor are any of these which men commit in consequence of their necessities.
Advice to Young Men | William Cobbett
Derelictio communis utilitatis contra naturam—The 50 abandonment of what is for the common good is a crime against nature.
Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources | James Wood
His trade can never be improved or purified, being itself a crime against nature.
Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 | Howard Phillips Lovecraft
To ignore a difference inherent in nature is a crime against nature and is punished accordingly by nature.
Dixie After the War | Myrta Lockett Avary

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