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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

Words related to suspect

assume, believe, consider, doubt, presume, speculate, think, wonder, open, pseudo, suspected, thick, thin, conceive, conclude, conjecture, disbelieve, expect, feel, gather

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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