1. carry out or commit (a harmful, illegal, or immoral action):"a crime has been perpetrated against a sovereign state"
Word Originmid 16th century: from Latin perpetrat- ‘performed’, from the verb perpetrare, from per- ‘to completion’ + patrare ‘bring about’. In Latin the act perpetrated might be good or bad; in English the verb was first used in the statutes referring to crime, hence the negative association.