to believe to be guilty, false, counterfeit, undesirable, defective, bad, etc., with little or no proof: to suspect a person of murder.
to doubt or mistrust: I suspect his motives.
to believe to be the case or to be likely or probable; surmise: I suspect his knowledge did not amount to much.
to have some hint or foreknowledge of: I think she suspected the surprise.
verb (used without object)
to believe something, especially something evil or wrong, to be the case; have suspicion.
noun
a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like.
an animal or thing that is suspected to be the cause of something bad: Investigators focused on faulty wiring as a suspect in the house fire.The cause of the disease was not confirmed, but the suspect was an insect.
adjective
suspected; open to or under suspicion.
Idioms for suspect
the usual suspects, the people, animals, or things that are commonly associated with a particular activity, situation, etc. (often used facetiously): We visited a family farm with sheep and bunnies and roosters and goats—the usual suspects!
Origin of suspect
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (adjective) from Latin suspectus, past participle of suspicere “to look up, look and see, regard with mistrust,” equivalent to su- “under, below, beneath” + -spicere, combining form of specere “to see, observe, keep an eye on, take into consideration”; (verb) partly from the adjective, partly from Middle French suspecter “to hold suspect,” or directly from Latin suspectāre, frequentative of suspicere; see su-
SYNONYMS FOR suspect
3 guess, conjecture, suppose.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR suspect ON THESAURUS.COM
OTHER WORDS FROM suspect
sus·pect·i·ble,adjectivenon·sus·pect,noun,adjectivepre·sus·pect,verb (used with object)un·sus·pect·ing,adjective
un·sus·pect·ing·ly,adverb
Words nearby suspect
Susiana, Susie, sus laws, suslik, Suslov, suspect, suspend, suspended animation, suspended sentence, suspender, suspender belt