Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A highly prolific or skilled criminal; a criminal of the highest order.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

arch- + criminal

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Examples

  • But yet again to equate Nelson Mandela to the archcriminal Rudolf Hess is

    Wole Soyinka - Nobel Lecture 1986

  • The first thing for Ted to do was to get rid of his prisoners, then to go after Mowbray, the archcriminal, and bring him to justice, and to arrest Ban Joy, the Japanese thug, whom he was convinced was the murderer of Helen Mowbray.

    Ted Strong in Montana With Lariat and Spur Edward C. Taylor

  • For the first time it occurred to her that the archcriminal might not be working alone, and that the entrance of the Unknown might have been a carefully devised ruse to draw them all together and hold them there.

    The Bat Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917

  • Almost before the mantel had swung to behind the archcriminal, the top of a tall pruning ladder had appeared at the window and by its quivering showed that someone was climbing up, rung by rung.

    The Bat Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917

  • Mrs. Brooks, whom Mr. McMullan called "the archcriminal," is also suspected of making illegal payments to the police.

    NYT > Home Page By SARAH LYALL 2011

  • The cops righteously reported that the archcriminal died with only $6.71 in his pockets, testimony to the low wages of sin.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • Due to all this, Hitchens Watch has now officially launched a global campaign calling for the arrest of the archcriminal Chris Hitchens for his "crimes against humanity."

    Hitchens Watch Rakhmetov 2010

  • But Harry can't help thinking the Dementors sent to capture him are far more scary than any archcriminal could be.

    Christian Science Monitor | All Stories 2010

  • An archcriminal escapes in 22nd-century New York and seeks revenge on the lawman who sent him to prison.

    post-gazette.com - News 2009

  • One can hardly imagine rhetoric more inflammatory, and the archcriminal who was its chief object was Stephen A. Douglas.

    Claremont.org 2009

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