I need suggestions for different ways to say "turning criminal," as in "He began turning criminal, committing illegal acts instead of abiding by the law."
4 Answers
If you're going for subtlety, try
He began to cross the line, committing illegal acts instead of upholding the law...
Other phrases you could substitute here for the bold text would be:
- turn to crime
- cross over
- cross into the dark side (pop culture reference)
Edit: if the character was also homosexual you could make a double entendre with the phrase batting for the other team
Edit2: triple entendre if he was into baseball.
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1@DanBron: This is priceless. "The triple entendre is an elusive-ass motherf****r." Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 18:30
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@TusharRaj That is great. I'd +1 your comment, but I'm all out of +1s today.– Dan BronCommented Jun 25, 2015 at 18:57
Become crooked
adjective
4. not straightforward; dishonest.
(dictionary.reference.com)
Almost always meant in a criminal way. (i.e. a crook.)
Resorting to criminality.
This amounts to another way of saying the same thing.
Since recidivism means returning to crime, it seems to me that the initial turning would be;
cidivism
"He was a paragon of propriety until he turned into a cidivist"
