Adjacent Words

Suspect definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SUSPECT', v.t. [L. suspectus, suspicio; sub and specio, to see or view.]
1. To mistrust; to imagine or have a slight opinion that something exists, but without proof and often upon weak evidence or no evidence at all. We suspect not only from fear, jealousy or apprehension of evil, but in modern usage, we suspect things which give us no apprehension.
Nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
From her hand I could suspect no ill.
2. To imagine to be guilty, but upon slight evidence or without proof. When a theft is committed, we are apt to suspect a person who is known to have been guilty of stealing; but we often suspect a person who is innocent of the crime.
3. To hold to be uncertain; to doubt; to mistrust; as, to suspect the truth of a story.
4. To hold to be doubtful. The veracity of a historian, and the impartiality of a judge, should not be suspected.
5. To conjecture.
SUSPECT', v.t. To imagine guilt.
If I suspect without cause, why then let me be your jest.
SUSPECT', a. Doubtful. [Not much used.]
SUSPECT', n. Suspicion.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not as expected; "there was something fishy about the accident"; "up to some funny business"; "some definitely queer goings-on"; "a shady deal"; "her motives were suspect"; "suspicious behavior" [syn: fishy, funny, shady, suspect, suspicious] n
1: someone who is under suspicion
2: a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused [syn: defendant, suspect] [ant: complainant, plaintiff] v
1: imagine to be the case or true or probable; "I suspect he is a fugitive"; "I surmised that the butler did it" [syn: suspect, surmise]
2: regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in [syn: distrust, mistrust, suspect] [ant: bank, rely, swear, trust]
3: hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty; "The U.S. suspected Bin Laden as the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks"

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin suspectus, from past participle of suspicere Date: 14th century 1. regarded or deserving to be regarded with suspicion ; suspected <investigates suspect employees> 2. doubtful, questionable <whose skills are suspect — Peter Vecsey> II. noun Date: 1591 one that is suspected; especially a person suspected of a crime III. verb Etymology: Middle English, from Latin suspectare, frequentative of suspicere to look up at, regard with awe, suspect, from sub-, sus- up, secretly + specere to look at — more at sub-, spy Date: 15th century transitive verb 1. to imagine (one) to be guilty or culpable on slight evidence or without proof <suspect him of giving false information> 2. to have doubts of ; distrust <suspects her motives> 3. to imagine to exist or be true, likely, or probable <I suspect he's right> intransitive verb to imagine something to be true or likely

U.S. Military Dictionary

1. In counterdrug operations, a track of interest where correlating information actually ties the track of interest to alleged illegal drug operations. See also counterdrug operations; track of interest. 2. An identity applied to a track that is potentially hostile because of its characteristics, behavior, origin, or nationality. See also assumed friend; hostile; neutral; unknown. (JP 3-07.4)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v., n., & adj. --v.tr. 1 have an impression of the existence or presence of (suspects poisoning). 2 (foll. by to be) believe tentatively, without clear ground. 3 (foll. by that + clause) be inclined to think. 4 (often foll. by of) be inclined to mentally accuse; doubt the innocence of (suspect him of complicity). 5 doubt the genuineness or truth of. --n. a suspected person. --adj. subject to or deserving suspicion or distrust; not sound or trustworthy. Etymology: ME f. L suspicere suspect- (as SUB-, specere look)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suspect Sus*pect", n. [LL. suspectus. See Suspect, a.] 1. Suspicion. [Obs.] --Chaucer. So with suspect, with fear and grief, dismayed. --Fairfax. 2. One who, or that which, is suspected; an object of suspicion; -- formerly applied to persons and things; now, only to persons suspected of crime. --Bacon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suspect Sus*pect", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suspected; p. pr. & vb. n. Suspecting.] 1. To imagine to exist; to have a slight or vague opinion of the existence of, without proof, and often upon weak evidence or no evidence; to mistrust; to surmise; -- commonly used regarding something unfavorable, hurtful, or wrong; as, to suspect the presence of disease. Nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little; and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more. --Bacon. From her hand I could suspect no ill. --Milton. 2. To imagine to be guilty, upon slight evidence, or without proof; as, to suspect one of equivocation. 3. To hold to be uncertain; to doubt; to mistrust; to distruct; as, to suspect the truth of a story. --Addison. 4. To look up to; to respect. [Obs.] Syn: To mistrust; distrust; surmise; doubt.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suspect Sus*pect", a. [L. suspectus, p. p. of suspicere to look up, admire, esteem, to look at secretly or askance, to mistrust; sub under + specere to look: cf. F. suspect suspected, suspicious. See Spy, and cf. Suspicion.] 1. Suspicious; inspiring distrust. [Obs.] Suspect [was] his face, suspect his word also. --Chaucer. 2. Suspected; distrusted. [Obs.] What I can do or offer is suspect. --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suspect Sus*pect", v. i. To imagine guilt; to have a suspicion or suspicions; to be suspicious. If I suspect without cause, why then make sport at me. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(suspected) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. You use suspect when you are stating something that you believe is probably true, in order to make it sound less strong or direct. I suspect they were right... The above complaints are, I suspect, just the tip of the iceberg... Do women really share such stupid jokes? We suspect not. VERB: V that, V that, V not/so [vagueness] 2. If you suspect that something dishonest or unpleasant has been done, you believe that it has probably been done. If you suspect someone of doing an action of this kind, you believe that they probably did it. He suspected that the woman staying in the flat above was using heroin... It was perfectly all right, he said, because the police had not suspected him of anything... You don't really think Webb suspects you?... Frears was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. VERB: V that, V n of n, V n, V-ed 3. A suspect is a person who the police or authorities think may be guilty of a crime. Police have arrested a suspect in a series of killings and sexual assaults in the city. N-COUNT 4. Suspect things or people are ones that you think may be dangerous or may be less good or genuine than they appear. Delegates evacuated the building when a suspect package was found... ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Surmise, imagine, fancy, believe, conjecture, guess, suppose, think. 2. Distrust, mistrust, doubt, have no confidence in. 3. Believe to be guilty. II. v. n. Be suspicious, have suspicion, imagine guilt.

Moby Thesaurus

a bit thick, a bit thin, absurd, account as, accused, arguable, assume, at issue, awake a doubt, be afraid, be diffident, be doubtful, be dubious, be possessive, be skeptical, be uncertain, believe, beyond belief, call in question, challenge, conceive, conclude, confutable, conjectural, consider, contest, contestable, contested, controversial, controvertible, correspondent, daresay, debatable, deduce, deem, defendant, deniable, disbelieve, disbelieved, discredited, disputable, dispute, disputed, distrust, divine, doubt, doubtable, doubted, doubtful, dream, dubious, dubitable, esteem, estimate, expect, exploded, fancy, feel, gather, grant, greet with skepticism, guess, half believe, harbor suspicions, hard of belief, hard to believe, have a feeling, have a hunch, have an idea, have an impression, have an inkling, have reservations, have the idea, hold, hold as, iffy, imagine, implausible, in dispute, in doubt, in dubio, in question, inconceivable, incredible, infer, judge, let, let be, libelee, look upon as, maintain, misdoubt, misgive, mistakable, mistrust, mistrusted, moot, not deserving belief, open, open to doubt, open to question, open to suspicion, opine, passing belief, prefigure, preposterous, presume, presuppose, presurmise, prisoner, problematic, provisionally accept, query, question, questionable, questioned, raise a question, reckon, refutable, regard, repute, respondent, ridiculous, say, scruple, sense, set down as, shadowy, shady, shaky, smell a rat, speculative, staggering belief, suppose, suppositional, surmise, suspected, suspicion, suspicious, take, take for, take for granted, take it, take to be, tall, theorize, thick, thin, think, throw doubt upon, treat with reserve, trow, unbelievable, uncertain, unclear, unconvincing, under a cloud, under suspicion, understand, unearthly, ungodly, unimaginable, unthinkable, unworthy of belief, view as, ween