Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US/Aus./N.Z.) a criminal; Ellem (1984) suggests ‘especially one with several convictions’.

1944		Sun (Sydney) 10 Nov. 2/1: ‘How’d you bump trouble, sonny? - you don’t look like a crim’.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 65: You know me, Miss Montrose, I don’t go around with crims like Mort.
1968		(con. 1940s) G. Dutton Andy 116: ‘Yer filthy buncha crims,’ yelled Sergeant Woodface.
1974		J. McNeil How Does Your Garden Grow Act III: sam: (raising two fingers, crossed) Crim’s honour, sir.
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 55: I suppose you’re a big-deal crim.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 36: They’re inclined to mingle with the odd crim.
1991		B. Stewart Broken Arse II v: And do you think anyone will believe you lying crims?
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] Letting the old crim get used to the idea.
2000		Guardian Guide 8–14 Jan. 75: Why should budding crims spend time in the nick, swapping tricks of the trade?
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 218: Or at least made it obvious that he was a small-time crim.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 34: Squirrelled away by profiteering Nazis, global narco-crims [and] corrupt autocrats.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] [T]he men sprint for the house, the policeman first, the journalist second, the old crim not far behind.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 138: [T]he old system where copper, crim, prostitute, drug dealer [...] were all part of the same black economy.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] The Saint’s big with your crim tatt artist.
2002		S. Maloney Something Fishy (2006) 27: The bike was supplied by one of Parish’s crim associates.