in flagrante delicto

• flagrante delicto
• in flagrante
• in flagrant delict (Anglicized, less common)

Borrowed from Medieval Latin in flagrante delicto (literally “while the crime is blazing”), from in + flāgrō (“burn”) + dēlictō, form of dēlictum (“crime, misdeed”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪn fləˌɡɹæn.teɪ dɪˈlɪk.təʊ/

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in flagrante delicto (not comparable)

1. In the act of committing a misdeed.
   • 1908, Baroness Orczy, chapter V, in The Old Man in the Corner‎:

     He would be caught in flagrante delicto, and, with a heavy sentence hovering over him, he would probably be induced to name his accomplice.

2. While performing sexual activity.
   • 1985, Jonathan Lynn, Clue, spoken by Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull):

     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?

   • 2002, Adriana Hunter, transl., The Sexual Life of Catherine M., translation of La Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M. by Catherine Millet, page 146:

     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.

   • 2015 February 8, Naomi Schaefer Riley, “Columbia mattress rape case is not justice — it’s shaming without proof”, in New York Post‎:

     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.’ ”

   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 65:

     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.

Also used in abbreviated in flagrante, particularly used of sexual activity, as in “to be caught in flagrante”.

• in the act
• red-handed
• with one's dick in one's hand (vulgar, informal)
• with one's hand in the cookie jar
• with one's pants down

• in flagrante
• in flagrant delict

• misdeed

• in flagrante (ellipsis)

Derived from Medieval Latin in flagrante delicto (literally “while the crime is blazing”), from in + flāgrō (“burn”) + dēlictō, form of dēlictum (“crime, misdeed”).

in flagrante delicto (not comparable)

1. (archaic) in flagrante delicto (in the act of committing a misdeed)

   Synonyms: med byxorna nere, på bar gärning

   • 1872 October 26, Östgöta Correspondenten, page 4:

     Om prinſen konſpirerade, kunde det endaſt wara som medbrottſling till Rouber, Abatucci och de andra anhängarne, ſom ſamlats omkring honom, för att helſa honom, och hwilka grepos in flagrante delicto, under det de frukoſterade wid ſamma bord.

     If the prince conspired, it was found only as an accomplice to Rouber, Abatucci, and the other followers who had gathered around him to greet him, and who were arrested in flagrante delicto, while they were breakfasting at the same table.

2. (uncommon) in flagrante delicto (while performing sexual activity)

   Synonym: med byxorna nere

   • 1874 August 21, “Utrikes-Nyheter [Foreign News]”, in Dagens Nyheter, page 2:

     En prest i Chevreuse blef i söndags "in flagrante delicto" ertappad under en förtrolig tête à tête med en 22-årig hustru till en rik klädeshandlare.

     A priest in Chevreuse was caught "in flagrante delicto" on Sunday during a confidential tête à tête with the 22-year-old wife of a rich clothing merchant.

   • 2007 June 10, Göteborgs-Posten, quoted in Korp – the corpus infrastructure of Språkbanken:

     På vägen ner stöter jag på två parande puktörneblåvingar; in flagrante delicto, hade Linné sagt med förtjusning.

     On the way down, I come across two mating polyommatus icarus; in flagrante delicto, Linnaeus would had said with delight.

   • 2020 December 1, Teresa Küchler, “EU-politiker greps på gruppsexfest i Bryssel [EU politicians arrested at group sex party in Brussels]”, in Svenska Dagbladet:

     Belgisk polis grep på fredagskvällen 25 personer, de flesta män, ”in flagrante delicto”, eller bokstavligen med byxorna nere, då de höll en illegal lockdownfest ovanpå en bar i Bryssels centrum. De var mitt uppe i ett gruppsexparty.

     Belgian police on Friday night arrested 25 people, most of them men, "in flagrante delicto", or literally with their pants down, as they held an illegal lockdown party on top of a bar in central Brussels. They were in the middle of a group sex party.