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  1. in flagrante delicto love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adv. Flagrante delicto.

Wiktionary

  1. adv. In the act of committing a misdeed.
  2. adv. While performing sexual activity.

Etymologies

  1. From Medieval Latin, literally “while the crime is blazing”, from Latin in + flāgrō ("burn") + dēlictō, form of dēlictum ("crime, misdeed"). (Wiktionary)
  2. New Latin in flagrante dēlictō : Latin in, in; see in-2 + Medieval Latin flagrante dēlictō, while the crime is blazing; see flagrante delicto. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Men discovered their wives in flagrante delicto and murdered them, the granaries leaked and wetted the wheat stored therein, the Tiber rose just enough to ensure that some of the public latrines backfilled and floated excrement out of their doors, a vegetable shortage developed when the Campus Martius and the Campus Vaticanus were covered with a few inches of water, and shoddily built high-rise insulae began to crumble into total collapse or suddenly manifested huge cracks in walls and foundations.”

    The First Man in Rome

  • “You drove home, you obeyed the rules of the road, you found your house, your house key, you punched in the alarm code, slipped off your shoes, you procured the family gun from the first-floor study, you found the right room, you caught your husband and Isabel Krug in flagrante delicto and you shot him dead.”

    Simon & Schuster: Isabel’s Bed

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. red-handed
  1. in the act
  1. in flagrant delict

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. flagrante delicto
  1. in flagrante delicto

tags (1)

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  1. latin

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Comments

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  • frindley The Renaissance madrigalist Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, wrote some amazingly modern-sounding music, but is perhaps even more famous for murdering his wife and her lover on catching them in flagrante delicto (or, it is said, asleep post flagrante delicto). Sep 27, 2008

  • chained_bear For some reason I always picture the movie "Amadeus" when I hear this phrase, though I don't think it's ever used in the movie...

    Also I love that it means "while the crime is blazing." Cool. :) Sep 27, 2008

  • punchcard The Latin term is sometimes used colloquially as a euphemism for a couple being caught in the act of sexual intercourse, as it is used in the film Clue; in modern usage the intercourse need not be adulterous or illicit Sep 27, 2008

  • john Latin for "while the crime is blazing." Similar in meaning to "caught in the act" or "caught red handed," and has come to be synonymous with "busted while getting it on." Oct 17, 2007

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‘in flagrante delicto’ has been looked up 1588 times, loved by 2 people, added to 17 lists, commented on 4 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.