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Criminal vs Perfidious - What's the difference?

criminal | perfidious | Related terms |

Criminal is a related term of perfidious.


As adjectives the difference between criminal and perfidious

is that criminal is being against the law; forbidden by law while perfidious is of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance.

As a noun criminal

is a person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the 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

    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

    perfidious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance.
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 2
  • *:TRINCULO (speaking about ): By this light, a most perfidious and drunken / monster: when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.
  • * 1851 , , Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome (ed. William C. Taylor), ch. 26:
  • The perfidious Ricimer soon became dissatisfied with Anthe'mius, and raised the standard of revolt.
  • * 1905 , , John Knox and the Reformation , ch. 14:
  • [S]he knew Huntly for the ambitious traitor he was, a man peculiarly perfidious and self-seeking.
  • * 2005 June 21, , " Art: The Velocipede of Modernism," Time :
  • When the Nazis branded Feininger a "degenerate artist" in 1937, he left 54 paintings for safekeeping with a Bauhaus friend named Hermann Klumpp. After the war, and for the rest of Feininger's life, the perfidious Klumpp refused to give them back.

    Synonyms

    * (disloyal) disloyal, traitorous, treacherous, unfaithful

    Derived terms

    * perfidiously * perfidiousness