alienist
Americannoun
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(formerly) a doctor specializing in the treatment of mental illness.
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an expert witness in a sanity trial.
noun
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a psychiatrist who specializes in the legal aspects of mental illness
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obsolete a person who practises alienism
Etymology
Origin of alienist
1860–65; alien(ation) + -ist; compare French aliéniste in same sense
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Doubters only need to sit through an hour or two of "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness," the follow-up to TNT's 2018 adaptation of Caleb Carr's "The Alienist," to understand the meaning of that.
From Salon • Jul. 19, 2020
After Lady Jaye died of an acute heart arrhythmia in 2007, Genesis continued their Pandrogeny Project, and recording a final album with Psychic TV, Alienist, in 2016.
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2020
The Alienist The team hatches a plan to catch the killer in this new episode.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 25, 2018
So maybe this Alienist version will be tame enough to be continued.
From New York Times • Jan. 5, 2018
Alienist physicians to whom the awful story has been submitted declare that there are in the world many unknown madmen; as adroit and as terrible as this monstrous lunatic.
From Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Maupassant, Guy de
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
