Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To consider (something) to be true or probable on little or no evidence.
  • intransitive verb To have doubts about (something); distrust.
  • intransitive verb To consider (a person) guilty without proof.
  • intransitive verb To have suspicion.
  • noun One who is suspected, especially of having committed a crime.
  • adjective Open to or viewed with suspicion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Suspected; suspicious.
  • Doubtful; uncertain.
  • noun A suspected person; one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like.
  • noun Something suspicious; something causing suspicion.
  • To imagine to exist; have a vague or slight opinion of the existence of, often on weak or trivial evidence; mistrust; surmise.
  • To imagine to be guilty, upon slight evidence or without proof.
  • To hold to be uncertain; doubt; mistrust; distrust.
  • To look up to; respect; esteem.
  • To imagine guilt, danger, or the like; be suspicious.
  • noun Suspicion.
  • noun A vague or slight opinion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Suspicious; inspiring distrust.
  • adjective obsolete Suspected; distrusted.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To imagine to be guilty, upon slight evidence, or without proof.
  • transitive verb To hold to be uncertain; to doubt; to mistrust; to distruct.
  • transitive verb obsolete To look up to; to respect.
  • noun obsolete Suspicion.
  • noun One who, or that which, is suspected; an object of suspicion; -- formerly applied to persons and things; now, only to persons suspected of crime.
  • intransitive verb To imagine guilt; to have a suspicion or suspicions; to be suspicious.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To imagine or suppose (something) to be true without evidence.
  • verb transitive To distrust or have doubts about (something or someone).
  • verb transitive To believe (someone) to be guilty.
  • verb intransitive To have suspicion.
  • noun A person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.
  • adjective To be viewed with suspicion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb imagine to be the case or true or probable
  • adjective not as expected
  • noun a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused
  • verb hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty
  • verb regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in
  • noun someone who is under suspicion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English suspecten, from Old French suspecter, from Latin suspectāre, frequentative of suspicere, to look up at, suspect : su-, sub-, from below; see sub– + specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin suspectus, perfect passive participle of suspiciō ("mistrust, suspect"), from sus-, combining form of sub ("under"), + speciō ("watch, look at").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word suspect.

Examples

  • The term suspect is an investigative term, not a legal term, Nancy.

    CNN Transcript Oct 2, 2008 2008

  • Personally, I believe that if a suspect is arrested and then convicted, his “demographic” is not the defining basis of that conviction.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » The Continuing Downsides of Having a “Colorful” Sheriff 2009

  • Its a common place of my community, and the fact that people don't know that I learned how to think about this from listening to my parents and their friends sit around the living room and talk about tv, movies, and 'the suspect is a black male' does not mean it did not happen.

    RFI par téléphone aux Etats-Unis 2009

  • It does not matter whether the suspect is a black, white or red man, the most important point here is that a man was being suspected for burgling his own house, his yelling could have made an intelligent officer to suspect that something must be wrong with the whole situation. stevegee

    Obama speaks with Gates' arresting officer 2009

  • There shouldn't be exceptions to this, and it shouldn't be based on the question of whether or not a suspect is a prisoner of war, an "enemy combatant," a person of interest, or just a bunch of anti-Semitic crack addicts in the Bronx.

    What We See 2009

  • Law enforcement officials said the suspect is the person who bought the Nissan Pathfinder used in the bombing attempt.

    POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Tuesday, May 4, 2010 2010

  • It does not matter whether the suspect is a black, white or red man, the most important point here is that a man was being suspected for burgling his own house, his yelling could have made an intelligent officer to suspect that something must be wrong with the whole situation.

    Police group: Obama should apologize 2009

  • BUT when a suspect is arrested and interrogated, then the police officer had better had Mirandized the suspect or anything said during the interrogation is tossed out because he hadn't been Mirandized.

    Rubio: Miranda rights could hamper terror investigations 2010

  • It does not matter whether the suspect is a black, white or red man, the most important point here is that a man was being suspected for burgling his own house, his yelling could have made an intelligent officer to suspect that something must be wrong with the whole situation.

    Police group: Obama should apologize 2009

  • Martin - the term suspect is a legal term which refers to someone suspected of having committed a criminal offence.

    Good For The Goose « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.