Library / English Dictionary

SUSPECT

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused

Synonyms:

defendant; suspect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("suspect" is a kind of...):

litigant; litigator ((law) a party to a lawsuit; someone involved in litigation)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "suspect"):

accused (a defendant in a criminal proceeding)

co-defendant; codefendant (a defendant who has been joined together with one or more other defendants in a single action)

Derivation:

suspect (hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who is under suspicion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("suspect" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "suspect"):

murder suspect (someone suspected of committing murder)

rape suspect (someone who is suspected of committing rape)

robbery suspect (someone suspected of committing robbery)

Derivation:

suspect (regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in)

suspect (hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not as expected

Example:

suspicious behavior

Synonyms:

fishy; funny; shady; suspect; suspicious

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

questionable (subject to question)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in

Synonyms:

distrust; mistrust; suspect

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "suspect" is one way to...):

disbelieve; discredit (reject as false; refuse to accept)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suspect"):

doubt (lack confidence in or have doubts about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

suspect (someone who is under suspicion)

suspicion (doubt about someone's honesty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Imagine to be the case or true or probable

Example:

I surmised that the butler did it

Synonyms:

surmise; suspect

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "suspect" is one way to...):

guess; hazard; pretend; venture (put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

suspicion (an impression that something might be the case)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty

Example:

The U.S. suspected Bin Laden as the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "suspect" is one way to...):

guess; imagine; opine; reckon; suppose; think (expect, believe, or suppose)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They suspect him to write the letter

Derivation:

suspect (a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused)

suspect (someone who is under suspicion)

suspicion (the state of being suspected)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A few days passed away, and Catherine, though not allowing herself to suspect her friend, could not help watching her closely.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

But the central power which uses the agent is never caught—never so much as suspected.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I suspect you already know this workload is coming.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Nobody wonders that they should prefer the line where their friends can serve them best, or suspects them to be less in earnest in it than they appear.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I should not have suspected that it meant she was dying; but I knew instantly now!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You don’t mean—you don’t mean that I am suspected?

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Colonel Forster did own that he had often suspected some partiality, especially on Lydia's side, but nothing to give him any alarm.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

You should not have suspected me now; the case is so different, and my age is so different.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It was unlikely that the doctor should fear death; and yet that was what Utterson was tempted to suspect.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If your doctor suspects that you have it, you'll start treatment before the lab tests come back.

(Diphtheria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)