convicts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of convict.

   The convicts were transported across the ocean to a distant penal colony.

   Guards led the convicts back to their cells once the head count was finished.

   Note

   A regular plural that covers more than one kind of convict. Most often it means people found guilty in court, but it can also mean people deported to a penal colony. Aquarium keepers use it for convict cichlids, whose stripes resemble a prison uniform, and the striped sheepshead shares the name. The noun is stressed on the first syllable, CON-victs, which sets it apart from the verb form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of convict.

   The jury convicts the defendant only after careful deliberation.

   When the evidence overwhelms any doubt, the court convicts the accused.

   Note

   Here the word is a transitive verb with a singular subject: the jury convicts, the court convicts. Its object is the person found guilty, and the finding can be legal or, informally, moral. It can also mean "convinces" or "persuades," a use far from the courtroom. In speech the stress moves to the second syllable, con-VICTS, the reverse of the plural noun.

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