guilt

[ gilt ]

noun

1. the fact or state of having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong, especially against moral or penal law; culpability:

   He admitted his guilt.

   Antonyms: innocence

2. a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined.
3. conduct involving the commission of such crimes, wrongs, etc.:

   to live a life of guilt.

   Synonyms: criminality

verb (used with object)

, Informal.

1. to cause to feel guilty (often followed by out or into ): guilt-trip.

   She totally guilted me out, dude. He guilted me into picking up the tab.

guilt

/ ɡɪlt /

noun

1. the fact or state of having done wrong or committed an offence
2. responsibility for a criminal or moral offence deserving punishment or a penalty
3. remorse or self-reproach caused by feeling that one is responsible for a wrong or offence
4. archaic.
   sin or crime

Other Words From

• non·guilt noun
• pre·guilt noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of guilt¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English gilt, Old English gylt “offense”

Word History and Origins

Origin of guilt¹

Old English gylt, of obscure origin

Example Sentences

She took the deal, again admitting her guilt, which qualified as a second strike on her record.

From Vox

Agency employees and execs say that whether or not agencies decide to open offices, managing expectations and helping assuage any sense of pressure or guilt to come in will be key.

From Digiday

It’s human nature to look for the most efficient way to decrease guilt.

From Fortune

You have to kind of package and create a streamlined way for them to reduce their guilt by being able to invest and support what you’re doing.

From Fortune

We could go to the bazaar of cultures and find reinforcement for inclinations that are repressed by puritanical guilt feelings.

From Nautilus

Guilt, when dispensed in the circumstances Morris occupied, is the anti-Viagra.

From The Daily Beast

Instead of lights and gifts, this one is filled with broken promises and guilt.

From The Daily Beast

Police then lied to Henry by telling him that if he admitted his guilt, he could go home.

From The Daily Beast

Although often this is considered proof positive of guilt at trial, it is not an uncommon occurrence in false confessions.

From The Daily Beast

Perhaps my outrage at the men defending Cosby springs from my own feelings of guilt.

From The Daily Beast

No guilt was charged against any one, although the wounded man said that he conjectured that it was Captain Silvestre de Aybar.

From Project Gutenberg

This way of owning Guilt in a wrong Place, is a common Artifice to hide it in a right one.

From Project Gutenberg

So the evidence of his guilt was no longer in the hands of a stranger, and Sir Richard Arden was saved.

From Project Gutenberg

Despite his own grief, he is sorry for the young man; nor is he convinced in his shrewd bourgeois mind of the latter's guilt.

From Project Gutenberg

If ever a pretty woman's smile was devilish, Lucy Warrender's was, as she insisted on this partnership in her guilt.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• culpability
• disgrace
• indiscretion
• liability
• regret
• remorse
• responsibility
• shame
• sin
• stigma