suspect
Verbsuspects, suspecting, suspected
Noun pluralsuspects
Formssuspects, suspecting, suspected
Pluralsuspects
- 1To imagine or suppose that something is true or exists, without having proof.
I suspect foul play, though there is no evidence yet.
Detectives suspected a link between the two robberies.
Similarsuppose, sense, believe, imagine
Note
Underneath this sense is a Latin picture. Suspiciō joined sub, "under", to speciō, "look at", so to suspect was to look at something from beneath. Here the looking produces a guess that stops short of proof, as with Gary Younge's Tunisians, who "suspected, but could not prove." Dropped in parenthetically, it softens a claim, as in Margery Allingham's The China Governess (1963): "born rather too early she suspected."
- 2A person who is suspected of something, especially of committing a crime.
The main suspect denied any part in the burglary.
Detectives released the suspect once the alibi checked out.
Note
The noun names the person that the accusing verb lands on. Its best-known outing is an order in Casablanca (1942), written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch: "Round up the usual suspects." In reporting it stays carefully neutral. A suspect is someone under suspicion, not someone proven guilty, and it pairs readily with main.
- 3To believe that someone is guilty of a wrongdoing.
Investigators suspect a former employee in the data breach.
The jury suspected him long before the final verdict.
Note
The accusing sense takes a person as its object and names the offense after of, usually with an -ing form: suspect him of being the thief. Leave out the of-phrase and the context must supply the wrongdoing. The person regarded this way is a suspect, and the noun and verb are spelled alike.
- 4To distrust someone or something, or to have doubts about its truth or value.
Many shoppers suspect reviews that sound too good to be true.
He suspected the contract and asked a lawyer to check it.
Similardistrust, mistrust, doubt, question
Note
Here the doubt runs the other way. Where the "suppose it true" meaning leans toward believing something, this one withholds belief: to suspect the truth of a story is to doubt it. The object is usually a quality someone claims, such as truth, honesty or fidelity. James Ridgway's A Dictionary of Literary Conversation (1785) tells of a jealous man "suspecting the fidelity of his wife."
- 5Regarded with suspicion; thought to be untrustworthy or not genuine.
Investigators flagged several suspect transactions in the account.
The witness gave a suspect account that the lawyers quickly tore apart.
Similarsuspicious, questionable, dubious, doubtful, shady
Oppositegenuine, trustworthy, reliable
Note
As an adjective it describes what draws suspicion, not who feels it. It can stand before a noun (suspect transactions), but it very often follows be, seem or appear. Milton writes "What I can do or offer is suspect" in Paradise Regain'd (1671), and a 2023 RAIL article asks "What appears suspect about the Beeching Report." It compares with more and most.
- 6To feel suspicion; to have a sense that something is amiss.
Once the numbers stopped adding up, the auditors began to suspect.
He never suspected, even as the warning signs multiplied.
- 7Inclined to suspicion; regarding someone or something with distrust.
His suspect glance swept the room for any sign of betrayal.
Years of war had left the old general suspect of even his closest allies.
Similarsuspicious, distrustful, mistrustful, wary
Oppositetrusting
Note
Turned the other way, the adjective describes the doubter rather than the doubted. Will Nickell's 2004 letter to Field & Stream says "Now I'm suspect of other advice." This use is nonstandard, and many readers will take it as a slip. In careful writing say suspicious of, and keep suspect for what draws the doubt.
Less common meaning
- 8To look up to or hold in respect; to esteem.
Note
A trap for modern readers: in this obsolete use the word meant esteem, the reverse of distrust. The Latin image of looking from below, traced at the "suppose it true" meaning, makes sense of it, because someone who looks up at another can admire as easily as mistrust. In old texts, read it as respect. Never use it this way today, since every listener will hear suspicion.
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Practice
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Origin
Suspect came into English from Old French suspect, which came from Latin suspectus, the perfect passive participle of suspiciō ("to mistrust, suspect"). This Latin verb was formed from sub ("under") plus speciō ("to watch, look at").