suspicious
- 1Causing people to feel that something dishonest or dangerous is going on.
A suspicious car had been parked outside the bank for three days.
The timing of his resignation looked suspicious to the board.
Similarquestionable
Oppositeinnocent, unremarkable, trustworthy
Note
Here the doubt lives in the thing observed, not in the observer: the opposite direction from the distrustful meaning. A suspicious stranger may be either, so context decides. The phrase suspicious of usually belongs to that other meaning, but H. E. Bates, in Death of a Huntsman (1957), turns it around: smells suspicious of mice are smells that hint at mice. Questionable is the close synonym when an act or motive is in doubt.
- 2Inclined to distrust others or to believe that something wrong is going on.
He grew suspicious when the deal sounded too good to be true.
Travelers tend to be suspicious of vendors who refuse to name a price.
Oppositeunsuspecting
Note
Here the doubt sits inside the person, and the word usually takes of: suspicious of strangers, suspicious of easy money. Its opposite is unsuspecting, the state of someone who sees no reason for doubt. Marlowe, in Tamburlaine the Great, attaches it to a feeling, 'suspitious loue,' set beside 'iealousie.' That pairing shows how near the word has long stood to jealous watchfulness.
- 3Showing or voicing distrust through one's words, tone, or facial expression.
The guard gave the latecomers a suspicious stare before waving them in.
Her suspicious questions about the receipts annoyed the whole accounting team.
Similardistrustful, mistrustful, wary, skeptical, doubtful
Oppositetrusting, unsuspecting
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with suspicious, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
From Old French sospecious, which came from the Latin suspiciosus (also spelled suspitiosus).