To commit a crime or crimes; to make criminal or guilty of crime.
From 'be-' combined with 'crime' (from Latin crimen). The prefix here carries a sense of causing someone or something to become criminal.
This verb represents an important Old English pattern: you could take almost any moral concept and make it a verb. 'Becrime' someone by leading them astray, 'beshame' them by causing embarrassment. This was a powerful way to express causation before English developed more precise ways of saying 'cause someone to be X.'
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