Adjacent Words

Suspicious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SUSPI'CIOUS, a. [L. suspiciosus.] Inclined to suspect; apt to imagine without proof.
Nature itself, after it has done an injury, will ever be suspicious, and no man can love the person he suspects.
1. Indicating suspicion or fear.
We have a suspicious, fearful, constrained countenance.
2. Liable to suspicion; adapted to raise suspicion; giving reason to imagine ill; as an author of suspicious innovations.
I spy a black suspicious threat-ning cloud.
3. Entertaining suspicion; given to suspicion.
Many mischievous insects are daily at work to make men of merit suspicious of each other.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: openly distrustful and unwilling to confide [syn: leery, mistrustful, suspicious, untrusting, wary]
2: 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]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century 1. tending to arouse suspicion ; questionable <suspicious characters> 2. disposed to suspect ; distrustful <suspicious of strangers> 3. expressing or indicative of suspicion <a suspicious glance> • suspiciously adverb • suspiciousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 prone to or feeling suspicion. 2 indicating suspicion (a suspicious glance). 3 inviting or justifying suspicion (a suspicious lack of surprise). Derivatives: suspiciously adv. suspiciousness n. Etymology: ME f. AF & OF f. L suspiciosus (as SUSPICION)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suspicious Sus*pi"cious, a. [OE. suspecious; cf. L. suspiciosus. See Suspicion.] 1. Inclined to suspect; given or prone to suspicion; apt to imagine without proof. Nature itself, after it has done an injury, will ever be suspicious; and no man can love the person he suspects. --South. Many mischievous insects are daily at work to make men of merit suspicious of each other. --Pope. 2. Indicating suspicion, mistrust, or fear. We have a suspicious, fearful, constrained countenance. --Swift. 3. Liable to suspicion; adapted to raise suspicion; giving reason to imagine ill; questionable; as, an author of suspicious innovations; suspicious circumstances. I spy a black, suspicious, threatening could. --Shak. Syn: Jealous; distrustful; mistrustful; doubtful; questionable. See Jealous. -- Sus*pi"cious*ly, adv. -- Sus*pi"cious*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you are suspicious of someone or something, you do not trust them, and are careful when dealing with them. He was rightly suspicious of meeting me until I reassured him I was not writing about him... He has his father's suspicious nature. ADJ: oft ADJ of n/-ing • suspiciously 'What is it you want me to do?' Adams asked suspiciously. ADJ: ADV after v 2. If you are suspicious of someone or something, you believe that they are probably involved in a crime or some dishonest activity. Two officers on patrol became suspicious of two men in a car... A woman kept prisoner in a basement was rescued after suspicious neighbours tipped off police. ADJ: oft ADJ of n 3. If you describe someone or something as suspicious, you mean that there is some aspect of them which makes you think that they are involved in a crime or a dishonest activity. He reported that two suspicious-looking characters had approached Callendar... ADJ • suspiciously They'll question them as to whether anyone was seen acting suspiciously in the area over the last few days... Police were told to arrest voters found with suspiciously large sums of money in their pockets. ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj/adv 4. see also suspiciously

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Distrustful, jealous, inclined to suspect, given to suspicion, mistrustful. 2. Liable to suspicion, doubtful, questionable.

Moby Thesaurus

Pyrrhonic, a bit thick, a bit thin, absurd, agnostic, amoral, apprehensive, arguable, at issue, beyond belief, borderline, cagey, careful, cautious, chary, confutable, conjectural, conscienceless, contestable, controversial, controvertible, corrupt, corrupted, criminal, crooked, dark, debatable, deniable, devious, disbelieving, dishonest, dishonorable, disinclined to believe, disposed to doubt, disputable, distrustful, distrustfully, doubtable, doubtful, doubtfully, doubting, dubious, dubitable, envious, evasive, felonious, fishy, fraudulent, from Missouri, green, green with jealousy, green-eyed, guarded, hard of belief, hard to believe, horn-mad, iffy, ill-got, ill-gotten, immoral, impervious to persuasion, implausible, in dispute, in doubt, in dubio, in question, inconceivable, inconvincible, incredible, incredulous, indirect, insidious, invidious, jaundice-eyed, jaundiced, jealous, leery, mistakable, mistrustful, mistrusting, moot, not deserving belief, not kosher, open, open to doubt, open to question, open to suspicion, passing belief, preposterous, problematic, queer, questionable, questioning, refutable, ridiculous, rotten, sceptical, scrupulous, shady, shaky, shameless, shifty, shy, shy of belief, sinister, skeptical, skeptically, slippery, speculative, staggering belief, suppositional, suspect, suspected, suspecting, suspiciously, tall, thick, thin, tricky, unbelievable, unbelieving, uncertain, unconscienced, unconscientious, unconscionable, unconvincible, unconvincing, uncredulous, under suspicion, underhand, underhanded, unearthly, uneasy, unethical, ungodly, unimaginable, unpersuadable, unpersuasible, unprincipled, unsavory, unscrupulous, unstraightforward, unsure, unthinkable, untrusting, unwilling to accept, unworthy of belief, wary, watchful, without remorse, without shame, yellow, yellow-eyed