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Criminal vs Desperado - What's the difference?

criminal | desperado | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between criminal and desperado

is that criminal is a person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the law while desperado is a bold outlaw, especially one from southern portions of the Wild West.

As an adjective criminal

is being against the law; forbidden by law.

criminal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Being against the law; forbidden by law.
  • * Addison
    • Foppish and fantastic ornaments are only indications of vice, not criminal in themselves.
  • Guilty of breaking the law.
  • * Rogers
    • The neglect of any of the relative duties renders us criminal in the sight of God.
  • Of or relating to crime or penal law.
  • * Hallam
    • The officers and servants of the crown, violating the personal liberty, or other right of the subject were in some cases liable to criminal process.
    His long criminal record suggests that he is a dangerous man.
  • (figuratively) Abhorrent or very undesirable, even if allowed by law.
    • ''Printing such asinine opinions without rebuttal is criminal , even when not libel!

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "criminal" is often applied: law, justice, court, procedure, prosecution, intent, case, record, act, action, behavior, code, offence, liability, investigation, conduct, defense, trial, history, responsibility, lawyer, tribunal, appeal, process, background, mind, conspiracy, evidence, gang, organization, underworld, jurisprudence, offender, jury, police, past, group, punishment, attorney, violence, report, career, psychology.

    Synonyms

    * illegal

    Derived terms

    * criminal conversation * criminalisation * criminalist * criminalistics * criminality * criminalize * criminal law * criminal-law * criminally * criminal negligence * criminalness * criminal-offence * criminal offence * criminal procedure * criminal record

    Related terms

    * criminate * crimination * criminologist * criminology * criminousness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the law.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=3 citation , passage=‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’}}

    Synonyms

    * lawbreaker * offender * perpetrator * See also

    desperado

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A bold outlaw, especially one from southern portions of the Wild West.
  • *1850 , (Thomas Carlyle), (Latter-Day Pamphlets)'', ''The present time
    • The kind of persons who excite or give signal to — students, young men of letters […], or fierce and justly bankrupt desperadoes , acting everywhere on the discontent of the millions and blowing it into flame, — might give rise to reflections as to the character of our epoch.
  • *1918 , (Willa Cather), (My Antonia) , Mirado Modern Classics, paperback edition, page 6
  • *:Surely this was the face of a desperado .
  • (chess) A piece that seems determined to give itself up, typically to bring about stalemate or perpetual check.