suspect

From Old French suspect, from Latin suspectus, perfect passive participle of suspiciō (“mistrust, suspect”), from sus-, combining form of sub (“under”), + speciō (“watch, look at”).

Adjective, noun

• enPR: sŭsʹpĕkt, IPA^(key): /ˈsʌs.pɛkt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

• enPR: səs.pĕktʹ, IPA^(key): /səsˈpɛkt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

suspect (third-person singular simple present suspects, present participle suspecting, simple past and past participle suspected)

1. (transitive) To imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof.

   to suspect the presence of disease

   • Milton

     From her hand I could suspect no ill.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎:

     Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

   • 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:

     WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.

2. (transitive) To distrust or have doubts about (something or someone).

   to suspect the truth of a story

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

3. (transitive) To believe (someone) to be guilty.

   I suspect him of being the thief.

4. (intransitive) To have suspicion.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To look up to; to respect.

• (imagine or suppose to be true): imagine, suppose, think
• (distrust, have doubts about): distrust, doubt
• (believe to be guilty): accuse, point the finger at

suspect (plural suspects)

1. A person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.

   Round up the usual suspects. — Casablanca

• suspectless

suspect (comparative more suspect, superlative most suspect)

1. Viewed with suspicion; suspected.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton:

     What I can do or offer is suspect.

   • 2013 January 1, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 1, page 64:

     In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.

2. (nonstandard) Viewing with suspicion; suspecting.
   • 2004, Will Nickell, letter to the editor of Field & Stream, Volume CIX Number 8 (December 2004–January 2005), page 18:

     Now I’m suspect of other advice that I read in your pages.

• (viewed with suspicion): dodgy (informal), doubtful, dubious, fishy (informal), suspicious

• suspicion
• suspicious

• cupsets, suscept

Latin suspectus

• IPA^(key): /sys.pɛ/

suspect (feminine singular suspecte, masculine plural suspects, feminine plural suspectes)

1. suspicious; suspect

• The -ct- becomes audible in the feminine forms (as [kt]). It is one of very few adjectives in which two mute consonants reappear.

suspect m (plural suspects, feminine suspecte)

1. a suspect

• “suspect” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).