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Idioms about suspect

    the usual suspects, the people, animals, or things that are commonly associated with a particular activity, situation, etc. (often used facetiously): We visited a family farm with sheep and bunnies and roosters and goats—the usual suspects!

Origin of suspect

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (adjective) from Latin suspectus, past participle of suspicere “to look up, look and see, regard with mistrust,” equivalent to su- “under, below, beneath” + -spicere, combining form of specere “to see, observe, keep an eye on, take into consideration”; (verb) partly from the adjective, partly from Middle French suspecter “to hold suspect,” or directly from Latin suspectāre, frequentative of suspicere; see su-

OTHER WORDS FROM suspect

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use suspect in a sentence

  • As poverty is generally suspectible, the widow must be got handsomely aforehand; and no doubt but she is.

    Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9)|Samuel Richardson

British Dictionary definitions for suspect

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 forms of suspect

suspecter, 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
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