How to Use criminalize in a Sentence

criminalize

verb
  • The march had been planned in response to a law that will criminalize some drag performances.
    — Daniella Silva, NBC News, 2 Apr. 2023
  • And then the other two states there is either a ban or attempts to criminalize it.
    — CBS News, 6 Nov. 2022
  • Instead Hong Kong has criminalized Mr. Lai’s calls to uphold freedom and the rule of law.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 12 Jan. 2024
  • His first order of business was to introduce a state bill to criminalize the type of scam that led to his son’s death.
    — Faith Karimi, CNN, 13 May 2023
  • Some other cities have followed suit, and New York has moved to criminalize the practice statewide.
    — Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, 12 June 2020
  • The incident comes just days after City Council passed a law to criminalize the use of a chokehold.
    — Cliff Pinckard, cleveland, 23 June 2020
  • The practice was criminalized in 2018 after a string of high-profile deaths.
    — Jessie Yeung, CNN, 10 Dec. 2019
  • There is nothing in the text of the resolution that mentions banning or criminalizing the use or singing of the phrase.
    — Isabel C. Morales, USA TODAY, 21 Nov. 2023
  • Yet some states, like Texas, continue to criminalize the drug.
    — Kiara Alfonseca, ABC News, 6 Apr. 2021
  • The law was also amended to criminalize acts such as stalking and voyeurism and allow for suspects to be tried as adults at age 16.
    — Mithil Aggarwal, NBC News, 14 Aug. 2024
  • Black children are criminalized through all walks of life.
    — Monique L. Dixon, Baltimore Sun, 29 Jan. 2025
  • This legislative package will also criminalize both the act of making a threat of mass harm and adding to a threat with overt acts to further it.
    — Kyla Guilfoil, ABC News, 6 June 2022
  • That all recently came to a screeching halt when the city criminalized the substance.
    — Theara Coleman, The Week, 6 Feb. 2023
  • On paper, there are no laws criminalizing women who do not wear the abaya.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2019
  • The court went out of its way to make clear that gay people could be criminalized under these provisions, and there was nothing wrong with that.
    — Tara Law, Time, 8 Oct. 2019
  • Dissent has been criminalized as extremist and can lead to sentences of life in prison.
    — Shibani Mahtani, Washington Post, 8 June 2023
  • The decision is subject to state laws that can criminalize the practice.
    — Anne Flaherty, ABC News, 16 Dec. 2021
  • They may be criminalized for sleeping on the street and have a record that prevents them from accessing housing again.
    — Dana Taylor, USA TODAY, 29 July 2024
  • Right now there are two laws that criminalize threats of violence.
    — Scott Travis, sun-sentinel.com, 16 Oct. 2019
  • In India, the push to criminalize marital rape goes back decades.
    — Sarita Santoshini, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Apr. 2022
  • The state is currently engaged in a year-long battle over the precedent of an 1849 law that criminalizes the death of an unborn child at the hands of anyone but the mother.
    — Joseph Abrams, Fortune, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The analysis of state laws finds most of the rules that criminalize address sharing do so by considering the practice a form of theft.
    — Alia Wong, USA TODAY, 8 Aug. 2023
  • Most of them sought to profit from the U.S. war on terror and had a direct hand in criminalizing politics.
    — Javid Ahmad, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2018
  • So rather than, than further criminalize their hobby Jackson sought to draw them in.
    — Laura Johnston, cleveland, 24 May 2022
  • Last month during a Pheu Thai rally, youth activists asked if Pheu Thai would amend the law that criminalizes criticism of the monarchy.
    — Muktita Suhartono, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2023
  • And five years after the first deepfakes started to appear, the first laws are just emerging that criminalize the sharing of faked images.
    — Matt Burgess, WIRED, 16 Oct. 2023
  • The Court was right that some presidential acts can’t be criminalized.
    — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 1 July 2024
  • The law criminalized references to Polish guilt in Nazi atrocities and was to be enforced with jail time.
    — Rick Noack, Washington Post, 27 June 2018
  • India criminalizes most cannabis products but makes a unique exception for bhang, an edible made from cannabis leaves.
    — Tribune Content Agency, Mercury News, 6 May 2025
  • Now, after months of outcry, a federal law criminalizing the sharing of those images is finally coming.
    — Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 19 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'criminalize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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