criminal conversation
criminal conversation noun: unlawful sexual intercourse with a married person; adultery; a common law tort arising from adultery, abolished in many jurisdictions.
Noun
criminal conversation (uncountable)
- Unlawful sexual intercourse with a married person; adultery; a common law tort arising from adultery, abolished in many jurisdictions.
- It then charged the defendant, William Atkinſon, with having ſeduced the plaintiff's wife, and with having had criminal converſation with her.1789, Adultery: The Trial of Mr. William Atkinson, Linen-Draper, of Cheapside for Criminal Conversation with Mrs. Conner, page 1
- Gentlemen of the Jury, This is an action for a compensation by damages, in consequence of a criminal conversation with the Plaintiff's wife, the circumstances of which are more serious and more painful than any I ever met with.1809, The Trial of the Right Honorable Lord Paget, for Criminal Conversation with Lady Charlotte Wellesley, page 28
- Synonyms:
- conversation, crim. con.
Synonyms of criminal conversation
Questions about criminal conversation
- What does criminal conversation mean?
- Criminal conversation means unlawful sexual intercourse with a married person; adultery; a common law tort arising from adultery, abolished in many jurisdictions.
- What part of speech is criminal conversation?
- Criminal conversation is a noun.
Words near criminal conversation in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: criminal conversation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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