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suspect

[v. suh-spekt; n. suhs-pekt; adj. suhs-pekt, suh-spekt]

verb (used with object)

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.

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Suspect is one of our favorite verbs.

So is fletcherise. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

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noun

a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like.

adjective

suspected; open to or under suspicion.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English (adj.) < Latin suspectāre, equivalent to su- su- + spectāre, frequentative of specere to look at

Related forms

sus·pect·i·ble, adjective

non·sus·pect, noun, adjective

pre·sus·pect, verb (used with object)

un·sus·pect·ing, adjective

un·sus·pect·ing·ly, adverb

Synonyms
3. guess, conjecture, suppose.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To suspect

Example Sentences

Bring re-sealable plastic bags to any occasion where you suspect food will be served.

Every bank is suspect and any bank seeking to raise money by selling a position is more suspect than ever.

The cause of half the deaths is still unknown, but officials suspect red tide might have played a role.

EXPAND

Bring re-sealable plastic bags to any occasion where you suspect food will be served.

Every bank is suspect and any bank seeking to raise money by selling a position is more suspect than ever.

The cause of half the deaths is still unknown, but officials suspect red tide might have played a role.

Such advances could allow law enforcement to sketch a description from clues in a suspect s genes.

Scientists suspect the behavior may benefit the birds by attracting insects or signaling to other owls that the nest is occupied.

Evolution appears to have hard-wired men to suspect their lovers of cheating.

If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.

Astronomers suspect the system was once made up of two stars that formed billions of years ago.

Once a leak occurs, he will narrow down the number of triplets that remain suspect.

They suspect that a fishing vessel picked it up accidentally.

In several others, however, the science played a crucial role in narrowing the suspect field and ultimately led to an arrest.

Police deem this out-dated, as a suspect can switch rapidly from one cellphone to another.

The researchers suspect the nematodes grow up inside the ants, then cause the hard outer layer of the gasters to thin.

Others suspect that knowing you nailed it might conjure a larger target in your memory.

If you do it in the science department, you're a little suspect.

The suspect they were looking for was not there, but three others were arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession.

Outside a liquor store, a policeman pats down a suspect.

Following in a giant dinosaur's footsteps could be fatal-but not for the reasons you might suspect.

Doctors suspect that both conditions are allergic reactions to the drug.

Cootie catchers are a popular means of fortune telling, but their accuracy is somewhat suspect.

The researchers suspect this moth was poisonous, too.

Most economists suspect this, but it has been hard to pinpoint why or by how much.

Many scientists suspect the dolphin may already be extinct.

Male langurs, for example, may kill an infant they suspect is fathered by another male.

My sister points the finger at my brother, who is my prime suspect this year.

Detectives suspect many more get through with a few kilos and a bribe.

The scientists suspect poachers killed the elephants.

Extraordinary results need to be held suspect until confirmed independently.

But more sceptical observers suspect a political motivation.

The researchers suspect that the cooler temperatures do not provide enough opportunities to reanimate and reproduce.

They suspect there may also be a second planet orbiting the red giant, which would be a first.

Those who suspect a bubble face the same dilemma as textbook prisoners: it makes sense to act sensibly only if others do so too.

Some scientists suspect the hemoglobin is a contaminant.

Many theorists suspect that the total vacuum energy is exactly zero.

Rabbit experts speculate that the suspect is a pet gone wild.

Now researchers suspect the sinking likely happened after the ship was hit with a rogue wave.

Astronomers suspect the system was once two stars, which formed billions of years ago.

But they suspect the rodents produce fewer free radicals over time.

Biologists suspect that a mixture of chemicals-not a single toxin-is causing the belugas to develop such high cancer rates.

The pay and the allowance are also suspect expat_academic:.

But a few astronomers and planetary scientists suspect that.

Researchers suspect herring hear the bubbles as they.

Identification of suspect substances depends on reference materials that are in short supply.

Scientists suspect that the insect ingests either an infected mosquito or water containing hairworm larvae.

If you suspect that over-enthusiastic fertilizing is to blame, consider replacing heavy feeders with.

Found in a region rich in endemic species, they suspect the.

Part of what made me suspect the router was that the lights on the modem all indicated that it was working.

Scientists suspect the new volcanoes occur at a crack in tectonic plates caused by.

Scientists have not targeted the source of estrogen, but many suspect it stems from certain pollutants and drugs in waterways.

Astronomers suspect that another type of pulsar-star pair is a way station between normal pulsars and millisecond pulsars.

Search committees seem relexively to suspect some kind of problem when a tenured person goes on the market.

It refused to grant bail to the first suspect charged.

And they suspect that gut enterotypes might affect how people react to different drugs and diets.

Researchers now suspect that night owls inherit their sleeping patterns and are launching a study.

The campus police suspect the burglar wanted a free computer, not a cache of personal data.

Football fans have been encouraged to call a police hotline or send an e-mail to the task-force if they suspect cheating.

It's even more difficult when you suspect there may not be a dad.

The negative comments in here are shocking and even suspect.

Instead, the wiretap provision applies to the suspect rather than a specific phone.

There is no reason to suspect there is anything wrong with them except that the hygienist says there is a little bone loss.

They also suspect the municipality of denying them services, to prise them out by stealth.

Experts suspect that exposure to some environmental factors in the womb or early in life might trigger the disorders.

We suspect there was more than a little consideration given to marketability as well.

They suspect that senior officials ordered the taps.

As you would suspect from the name of the department, some extra.

Brain scientists are beginning to suspect that it is.

Indeed, plenty of people suspect that lorry-loads of stuff collected for recycling end up in landfill instead.

If enemies intercepted the tablet, they wouldn't suspect it contained anything strange.

Scientists suspect the larger, more mysterious, rays are highly migratory animals that wander the world's seas.

However, it would still not require authorities to get a warrant to obtain past cellphone location data of a suspect.

For economists, any explanation of change involving greed or self-dealing is always highly suspect.

Scientists also suspect that global warming may play a part in the migrations.

But they suspect that the foreigners might bring about more subtle changes.

The suspect then walked through a breezeway of the complex, and officers on foot lost track of him.

But it now seems as if another bit is suspect too: the idea that banks pay meaningful amounts of tax.

The differences are so slight that the researchers suspect them to be functionally irrelevant.

Universities do not want to seem cheap because students might suspect that a low tuition fee signals a second-rate product.

Though it can't be seen in the picture, researchers suspect the planet is there because of its gravitational calling card:.

One suspect was injured attempting to escape by leaping from a third-floor apartment, he said.

Scientists suspect it has been controlling koala populations naturally for years.

Yet the perils are hidden, and you wouldn't suspect them by watching these lords of the forest.

Some suspect that airborne dust could be a built-in response to global temperature changes.

For instance, some scientists suspect bedbugs may have developed multiple resistances to pesticides.

Some scientists also suspect there might be physiological reasons for obsessive tanning, she said.

Other experts suspect they may be the first signs of a much larger residential area that has yet to be explored.

But some researchers suspect those effects could trickle down into the lower layers, where weather happens.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

suspect

—vb
1.	(tr) to believe guilty of a specified offence without proof
2.	(tr) to think false, questionable, etc: she suspected his sincerity
3.	(tr; may take a clause as object) to surmise to be the case; think probable: to suspect fraud
4.	(intr) to have suspicion

—n
5.	a person who is under suspicion

—*adj*
6.	causing or open to suspicion

[C14: from Latin suspicere to mistrust, from sub- + specere to look]

sus'pecter

—n

'suspectless

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

suspect

mid-14c., from O.Fr. suspect "suspicious," from L. suspectus "suspected, suspicious," pp. of suspicere "look up at, mistrust, suspect," from sub "up to" + specere "to look at" (see scope (1)). The notion is of "look at secretly," hence, "look at distrustfully." The verb is

EXPAND

attested from late 15c.; the noun meaning "a suspected person" is first recorded 1590s.

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"Those who are incapable of commiting great crimes will not easily suspect others of doing so."

-François La Rochefoucauld, Duc De

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