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incriminate

UK/ɪnˈkɹɪm.ɪ.neɪ̯t/US/ɪnˈkɹɪm.ɪ.neɪ̯t/
verbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,303 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: incriminating, incriminated, incriminates

To incriminate is to make somebody appear guilty of a crime. Incriminate himself, incriminating evidence, refuse to incriminate.

The right not to incriminate yourself is one of the oldest protections in law, and it is why nobody has to answer questions that would help convict them. Something that incriminates only suggests guilt: proving it is a separate and much harder job.

Definitions of incriminate

  1. 1verbincriminateTo make somebody appear guilty of a crime.B2+

    “He burned the letters because they could incriminate him in the fraud.”

incriminate is an implicating.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin incriminare means to charge with a crime, from in plus crimen, an accusation.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *krey-

  2. Latin

    incrīminō

  3. Medieval Latin

    incrīminātus

  4. English, today

    incriminate

Medieval Latin incrīminātus, of Latin incrīminō, see -ate. 1736. by surface analysis, in- + criminate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

incriminate in the wild

  • While incriminating those who are innocent might be done out of sheer malice, framing is primarily used as a distraction.

    Frameup

  • The Valeyard had been working with the Time Lords to incriminate the Doctor in exchange for the Doctor's remaining regenerations.

    The Valeyard

  • Ong claimed that the tapes incriminate Arroyo and all of the other politicians who were officially declared winners of the 2004 elections.

    Samuel Ong

  • Exceptions were made for close family members of the felon and where the disclosure would tend to incriminate the reporter himself.

    Misprision of felony

  • The court further held that no distinction should be drawn between the use of such evidence to incriminate the accused directly or to impeach their credibility.

    R v Henry

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the incrīminō family

incriminatingincriminate

incriminate — used about once every 4,394 pages · #9,303 · point at the bar for the others