suspect

[verb suh-spekt; noun suhs-pekt; adjective suhs-pekt, suh-spekt]

verb (used with object)

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.

verb (used without object)

to believe something, especially something evil or wrong, to be the case; have suspicion.

noun

a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like.

adjective

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

Related formssus·pect·i·ble, adjectivenon·sus·pect, noun, adjectivepre·sus·pect, verb (used with object)un·sus·pect·ing, adjectiveun·sus·pect·ing·ly, adverb

Synonyms for suspect

3. guess, conjecture, suppose.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

British Dictionary definitions for suspectible

suspect

verb (səˈspɛkt)

(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

noun (ˈsʌspɛkt)

a person who is under suspicion

adjective (ˈsʌspɛkt)

causing or open to suspicion

Derived Formssuspecter, nounsuspectless, adjective

Word Origin for suspect

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for suspectible

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.