In flagrante delicto

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In flagrante delicto or sometimes simply in flagrante (Latin: "while [the crime] is blazing") is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offense (compare corpus delicti). The colloquial "caught red-handed" or "caught in the act" are English equivalents.

The Latin term has come to be used far more often as a euphemism for a couple being caught in the act of sexual intercourse; in modern usage the intercourse need not be adulterous or illicit.

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Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 06:45:40 PST (GMT -0800)
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