# miscreant

Pronunciation: say "MIS-kree-uhnt" /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/

## Noun

1. A person who has behaved badly or broken the law, sometimes a thoroughly unscrupulous villain.
   - Simple: A person who does bad things or breaks the law.
   - _Police are still looking for the miscreants who spray-painted the bridge._
   - _The principal gave each miscreant a week of detention for starting the food fight._

## Adjective

2. Misbehaving or flouting rules, often more from mischief or rowdiness than real wickedness.
   - Simple: Behaving badly or breaking rules, often in a naughty or wild way more than an evil one.
   - _A few miscreant fans set off fireworks in the stands during the final._
   - _The coach benched the two miscreant players who skipped practice._
3. Without conscience or moral principles; acting with no scruples about right and wrong.
   - Simple: Not caring at all about what is right or wrong.
   - _A few miscreant officials took bribes and looked the other way._
   - _The company fired the miscreant manager who had faked the safety reports._

## Noun

4. A person who holds a false or mistaken religious belief. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A person who has false or wrong religious beliefs.
   - _The crusaders swore to drive the miscreants from the holy city._
   - _The preacher warned that every miscreant who rejected the true faith would face judgment._

## Adjective

5. Holding a religious belief that is incorrect. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Having religious beliefs that are false or wrong.

## Origin

Its ancestor is the Old French verb mescreire, "to misbelieve" (today mécroire). The present participle of that verb, mescreant, meant a "mis-believer", and English adopted it in the Middle English period as myscreaunt or miscreaunt.

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