# guilt

Pronunciation: say "GILT" /ɡɪlt/

## Noun

1. A painful feeling of regret that comes from knowing you have done something wrong.
   - Simple: A bad feeling you get when you know you did something wrong.
   - _A deep sense of guilt kept her awake long after the argument ended._
   - _He carried the guilt of his harsh words for years afterward._
2. The fact of being responsible for having done something wrong.
   - Simple: Being the one who is to blame for doing something wrong.
   - _Her guilt in the affair was obvious to everyone present._
   - _The committee debated where the guilt for the failure truly lay._
3. The state of having been found guilty, or of having admitted to a crime, in a court of law.
   - Simple: In court, the fact that someone is found to have broken the law.
   - _The prosecution failed to prove the defendant's guilt beyond reasonable doubt._
   - _His guilt was established only after the appeal was rejected._

## Verb

4. To make someone feel guilty, especially as a way to influence what they do. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To make someone feel bad so that they do what you want.
   - _He guilted his roommate into covering the rent again._
   - _They guilt their employees into working weekends without extra pay._

## Verb

5. To commit offenses; to act in a criminal manner. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To break the law or do criminal things.

## Adjective

6. Obsolete form of gilt. *(obsolete)* — Obsolete form of gilt (“gilded”)
   - Simple: Obsolete form of gilt. An old spelling meaning covered with a thin layer of gold.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4** — From Middle English 'gilt', from Old English 'gylt' ("guilt, sin, offense, crime, fault"), of obscure origin. It may be related to Old English 'ġieldan' ("to pay, requite, punish"), the source of 'yield', and possibly connected to Proto-West Germanic '*guldijā' (source of words meaning "debt, fee"), though the forms do not fully fit.
**Meaning 5** — From Middle English 'gilten', from Old English 'gyltan' ("to commit sin, be guilty"), from 'gylt' ("guilt, sin, offense, crime, fault").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/guilt (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).