criminalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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criminalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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criminalized,
past participle, past
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criminalizing
present participle
verb
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to make (an action or activity) criminal
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to treat (a person) as a criminal
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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criminalizesimple
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criminalizessimple
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have criminalizedperfect
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has criminalizedperfect
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am criminalizingprogressive
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are criminalizingprogressive
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is criminalizingprogressive
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have been criminalizingperfect progressive
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has been criminalizingperfect progressive
Past
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criminalizedsimple
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had criminalizedperfect
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was criminalizingprogressive
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were criminalizingprogressive
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had been criminalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of criminalize
Vocabulary lists containing criminalize
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.
See Examples For:
In 2023, when Texas politicians sought to criminalize many drag performances, Parton backed a drag queen fighting the legislation in a way that was uniquely Dolly.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
‘Your boss came out there and said: We are going to criminalize the work you do. Why should we trust you?’
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
I suspect that experience gave her a very strong civil libertarian instinct that manifests here as a deep skepticism towards state power to criminalize gun possession.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
He proposes to protect the country’s border using electronic surveillance and digital controls and to criminalize illegal entry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025
Elham Jalayer, harm reduction director with the social services group Bienestar, said a fence would further criminalize the homeless and give the city an excuse to push people out of the neighborhood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2025
The court didn’t reach Louisiana’s separate argument that the Comstock Act criminalizes the mailing of mifepristone, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t embrace that claim later too.
From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2026
Approximately 45 states, including New Jersey, have passed legislation that criminalizes AI-generated or modified images of this kind.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
“There is nothing in this law that criminalizes homelessness.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
It criminalizes the destruction of evidence - like records or documents.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2024
However, advocates for those experiencing homelessness push back on this argument, which they claim, in fact, criminalizes homelessness.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2023
This process is what led to the Pentagon Papers, and allowing it to be criminalized in the way that it was against Villarreal would make the service of journalism impossible.
From Slate ● Mar. 26, 2026
He was also gay at a time when homosexuality was criminalized in Britain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
Even after abolition, Lucumí continued — quietly, often in private homes — as police and officials criminalized anything perceived as “pagan.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2025
The document argues that prosecutors can revive the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that criminalized the mailing of "obscene" materials, which were broadly defined to cover all of these items.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2025
Her trial's likely to prove rather interesting, however, as she only commits "crimes" in areas of social activity that haven't even been defined yet, much less successfully criminalized.
From The Cyberpunk Fakebook by St. Jude
In some places, laws criminalizing certain psychological abuse, like “coercive control,” are making it onto the books, but it varies wildly by state.
From Slate ● Jun. 15, 2026
"I've been doing this work for 30 years" yet the authorities "still haven't succeeded in criminalizing me," said Ramos, who is based in Nuevo Laredo, in the troubled state of Tamaulipas.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
If he was right, the recently disclosed battles over criminalizing noncriminal conduct may be the beginning of the process.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Not every leader has embraced this approach of what some observers call criminalizing homelessness.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2025
The state refused to step in to aid the movie companies by criminalizing the new technology.
From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
