in flagrante delicto
/ɪn fləˌɡɹæn.teɪ dɪˈlɪk.təʊ/
in flagrante delicto adverb: in the act of committing a misdeed.
Adverb
in flagrante delicto (not comparable)
- In the act of committing a misdeed.
- He would be caught in flagrante delicto, and, with a heavy sentence hovering over him, he would probably be induced to name his accomplice.1908, Baroness Orczy, chapter V, in The Old Man in the Corner
- Synonyms:
- in the act, red-handed, with one's dick in one's hand, with one's hand in the cookie jar, with one's pants down
- While performing sexual activity.
- We've already established that you were one of Miss Scarlet's clients. That's why you were so desperate to get your hands on those negatives. Photographs of you and Yvette in flagrante delicto, remember?1985, Jonathan Lynn, Clue, spoken by Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull)
- I would add to that the fact that, if we are happy to be caught in flagrante delicto in a picturesque setting, there would be something almost humiliating about being caught somewhere as ugly as that.2002, Adriana Hunter, transl., The Sexual Life of Catherine M., translation of La Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M. by Catherine Millet, page 146
in flagrante delicto meaning in Tamil and Arabic
in flagrante delicto in Tamil
- கையும் களவுமாக
in flagrante delicto in Arabic
- in the act of committing a misdeed
- مُتَلَبِّسًا mutalabbisan
Examples of in flagrante delicto in a sentence
- When his housemates, two men and a woman, found them in flagrante delicto, one reported, “She said she didn’t want us to think of her as ‘that girl.’ ”2015 February 8, Naomi Schaefer Riley, “Columbia mattress rape case is not justice — it’s shaming without proof”, in New York Post:
- As a student of the fossil record, I can assure you that it’s not often that creatures are transformed, in flagrante delicto, into memento mori.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 65:
Synonyms of in flagrante delicto
- in the act
- red-handed
- with one's dick in one's hand
- with one's hand in the cookie jar
- with one's pants down
Forms of in flagrante delicto
| alternative form | flagrante delicto |
|---|---|
| alternative form | in flagrante |
| alternative form | in flagrant delict |
| alternative form | in flagranti delicto |
Origin of in flagrante delicto
Unadapted borrowing from Medieval Latin in flagrante delicto (literally “while the crime is blazing”), from in + flāgrō (“burn”) + dēlictō, form of dēlīctum (“crime, misdeed”).
Words formed from in flagrante delicto
Questions about in flagrante delicto
- What does in flagrante delicto mean?
- In flagrante delicto means in the act of committing a misdeed.
- What is in flagrante delicto in Tamil?
- In flagrante delicto in Tamil is கையும் களவுமாக. See In flagrante delicto meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use in flagrante delicto in a sentence?
- When his housemates, two men and a woman, found them in flagrante delicto, one reported, “She said she didn’t want us to think of her as ‘that girl.’ ”
- What part of speech is in flagrante delicto?
- In flagrante delicto is an adverb.
- How do you pronounce in flagrante delicto?
- In flagrante delicto is pronounced /ɪn fləˌɡɹæn.teɪ dɪˈlɪk.təʊ/.
Words near in flagrante delicto in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: in flagrante delicto (page history and authors); in flagrante delicto (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-in flagrante delicto.wav.
Cite this entry: “in flagrante delicto.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_flagrante_delicto. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.