noun
definition
The person or thing at fault for a problem or crime.
example
I have tightened the loose bolt that was the culprit; it should work now.
definition
A prisoner accused but not yet tried.
Examples of culprit in a Sentence
Was loneliness the culprit of her decision to spend the night?
Did the culprit do my work for me or simply get in my way?
Howie remained obsessed that he'd failed to nail the culprit and when he heard of this later case, he begged Quinn to take enough time away from his wife and new daughter for a single session.
The sun is perhaps the greatest culprit of all.
A man, not the usual wimpy social lady, was the culprit who organized the hasty departure.
Betsy read a notice on the Internet a day later that the culprit was beaten and in serious condition, after allegedly resisting arrest.
Further, they had the effect of sobering the culprit, and the more creditable part of his life did not begin till he left Vincennes.
Perhaps the culprit was the person who beat me to the publisher in Vermont, the sponsor of that idiotic contest!
A culprit is easily discovered either by an appeal to a local diviner or in torturing some one into confession.
Fortunately, Brutus wasn't the culprit.
Howie, with his disappointment intensified, vowed to do everything it took to apprehend the culprit he nicknamed the Delabama Killer.
It took three tries bracketing the time before they hit on the culprit.
Both the police and British Energy launched investigations to try and trace the culprit, but failed to do so.
While I expressed my disappointment, he reminded me our culprit had a notorious habit of frequently changing stolen plates.
Had there been a trial he would have been forced to reveal the culprit.
One of these is the common culprit Poison Ivy, a plant notorious for causing major skin irritation to those who encounter it.
If you suddenly develop discoloration under the eyes, a vitamin deficiency could be the culprit.
Since you have treated her so thoroughly for fleas, I doubt this is the culprit.
A major culprit in this can be poor composition.
Sun exposure is the number one culprit for developing dark skin discolorations.
The positioning of your model might be the culprit.
According to Ulpian the punishment for sacrilegium varied according to the position and standing of the culprit and the circumstances under which the crime was committed.
The penalties in the canon law included, in addition to restitution, penance, fines and excommunication; and right of asylum was denied to the culprit.
I am never-the-less deeply annoyed by this culprit's ability to connect me to you.
Eventually, the real culprit is found to be Roddy's dog, Murphy.
I did a bit of research and found out that too much fructose could be the culprit.
The culprit was a big grouper weighing around sixty pounds - an awesome fish with a mouth like a bucket.
Whatever tended to infringe in the slightest degree on their darling monopoly was visited with the severest penalties, whether the culprit chanced to be high in rank or low.
It is not appropriate here to unmask the culprit in the style of a whodunit.
Yet another cat, who adopted me, seems to be the culprit for a daily dump in the same location each day.
At each level, you have to photograph the different clues, as well as the different monsters to discover the culprit behind the mystery.
It turns out a botched surgery on her nose and lips were the culprit this time.
Whatever the culprit, your vet will then know how to pursue treatment to stop the itching.
Birds are also a big culprit in harvesting blueberries, often plucking the fruit off the plant before it can ripen fully.
Treat with the proper fungicides early in the season.Birds are the biggest culprit plaguing grape vines.
If your indoor gardenia plant's leaves are turning yellow and you suspect temperature fluctuations may be the culprit, try moving the plant to a different location.
Most of the time, it is ill-fitting Capri pants that are the culprit when plus size Capri sets don't flatter.
Additionally, boxed wine avoids "cork taint," which is a culprit that has ruined many perfectly good bottles of wine that weren't consumed quickly enough after opening.
It has been conclusively proven that another herpes virus-varicella zoster virus (VZV), the cause of both chickenpox and shingles-is the culprit for Ramsey-Hunt syndrome.
If the culprit is, for instance, a cosmetic, avoidance is a simple matter, but in some situations, avoidance may be impossible or force the sufferer to make drastic changes in his or her life.
The bacterial culprit in RMSF is Rickettsia rickettsii.
Toxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum are the main culprit in botulism.
When a child's symptoms appear in spring or summer and disappear with the onset of cold weather, seasonal AR is almost certainly the culprit.
Allergy tests including skin testing and provocation testing can help identify the precise culprit, but may not be done unless a single source is suspected and subsequent avoidance is possible.
One thing to keep in mind with financial losses is that there is typically more than one leaky culprit.
Folk wisdom - and many advertisers - will tell you that poor circulation to the scalp is the culprit, or that you're losing your hair because you're not taking the right vitamins.
Vitamin B12 is sometimes a culprit when hair loss strikes.
If a large number of people report the same side effects, the company will investigate to see if the drug is really the culprit.
The only other ingredients in pure kombucha tea are black tea, water and sugar or sweetener, so it seems that the likely culprit is one of the many strains of bacteria growing in the beverage.
One report showed lead poisoning as the culprit because someone brewed kombucha tea in a ceramic container.