suspect
[verb suh-spekt; noun suhs-pekt; adjective suhs-pekt, suh-spekt]
- to believe to be guilty, false, counterfeit, undesirable, defective, bad, etc., with little or no proof: to suspect a person of murder.
- to doubt or mistrust: I suspect his motives.
- to believe to be the case or to be likely or probable; surmise: I suspect his knowledge did not amount to much.
- to have some hint or foreknowledge of: I think she suspected the surprise.
- to believe something, especially something evil or wrong, to be the case; have suspicion.
- a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like.
- suspected; open to or under suspicion.
Origin of suspect
1250–1300; Middle English (adj.) < Latin suspectāre, equivalent to su- su- + spectāre, frequentative of specere to look at
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com3. guess, conjecture, suppose.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for unsuspecting
Contemporary Examples
Some are eventually re-gifted to unsuspecting relatives or friends.
He was one of the first great modern day ad-libbers, unleashing all-out joke assaults on unsuspecting audiences.
Like any massively successful property, the Turtles eventually began influencing its audience in unsuspecting ways.
How the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Inadvertently Caused an Environmental CrisisAlex Suskind
August 5, 2014
In Afghanistan, Gibbs started to teach his soldiers how to “drop weapon” on unsuspecting civilians.
Yes, and a terrible lie—designed to gull money from a generous, unsuspecting public.
Colonel of Truth: The KFC Hoax and the Idiocy of Crowdfunding for Bullying VictimsScott Bixby
June 25, 2014
Historical Examples
After dinner the Little Doctor spoke to the unsuspecting critics.
Chip, of the Flying UB. M. Bower
She had been generous, and unsuspecting, and for this she was betrayed and abandoned.
Gomez AriasJoaqun Telesforo de Trueba y Coso
Like my father, I was open, guileless, unsuspecting—and it destroyed me.
Recklessly, then, that unsuspecting fellow stepped into the trap.
The Historical Nights' EntertainmentRafael Sabatini
For this you cultivated the good graces of an unsuspecting old man.
MelomaniacsJames Huneker
unsuspecting
- disposed to trust; not suspicious; trusting
suspect
- (tr) to believe guilty of a specified offence without proof
- (tr) to think false, questionable, etcshe suspected his sincerity
- (tr; may take a clause as object) to surmise to be the case; think probableto suspect fraud
- (intr) to have suspicion
- a person who is under suspicion
- causing or open to suspicion
Word Origin
C14: from Latin suspicere to mistrust, from sub- + specere to look
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for unsuspecting
suspect
adj.
mid-14c., from Old French suspect "suspicious," from Latin suspectus "suspected, suspicious," past participle of suspicere "look up at, mistrust, suspect," from sub "up to" + specere "to look at" (see scope (n.1)). The notion is of "look at secretly," hence, "look at distrustfully." The verb is attested from late 15c.; the noun meaning "a suspected person" is first recorded 1590s. Related: Suspected; suspecting.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper