English
mistrust
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /mɪsˈtɹʌst/
Noun

mistrust (uncountable)

  1. Lack of trust or confidence; distrust, untrust.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Verb

mistrust (mistrusts, present participle mistrusting; past and past participle mistrusted)

  1. (transitive) To have no confidence in (something or someone).
    • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain (Milton), London: James Allestry, Book 3, p. 104:
      The Britans marching out against them, and mistrusting thir own power, send to Germanus and his Collegue, reposing more in the spiritual strength of those two men, than in thir own thousands arm’d.
    • 1902, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: A Narrative” in Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories, Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, p. 6:
      He mistrusted my youth, my common-sense, and my seamanship, and made a point of showing it in a hundred little ways.
  2. (transitive) To be wary, suspicious or doubtful of (something or someone).
    • c. 1380s, Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, lines 1609-1610:
      Mistrust me not thus causeles, for routhe;
      Sin to be trewe I have yow plight my trouthe.
    • 1621, Robert Burton (scholar), The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, Partition 3, Section 3, Member 2, Subsection 1, p. 683:
      It is most strange to report what outragious acts […] haue beene committed […] by women especially, that will runne after their husbands into all places, all companies, as Iouianus Pontanus wife did by him, follow him whether soeuer hee goes, it matters not, or vpon what businesse, rauing […] , cursing, swearing, and mistrusting euery one she sees.
    • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 19:
      The innocent beauty of her face was not as innocent to me as it had been; I mistrusted the natural grace and charm of her manner […]
  3. (transitive) To suspect, to imagine or suppose (something) to be the case.
    • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act V, Scene 6:
      […] I prophesy, that many a thousand,
      Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear,
      And many an old man's sigh and many a widow’s,
      And many an orphan’s water-standing eye—
      Men for their sons, wives for their husbands,
      And orphans for their parents timeless death—
      Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born.
    • 1743, Robert Drury (sailor), The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar London, p. 51,:
      As soon as it was dark enough to conceal our Flight, we assembl’d together, and took a considerable Quantity of Muslins and Callicoes, and hung them upon the Bushes, that the Spies, who we knew watch’d us, might not any ways mistrust our sudden Removal.
    • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds
      Those who had known the circumstances of her discovery, had gradually come to look upon her as the child of those who treasured her as if she had been their own; and the playmates of her childhood days had never mistrusted there was a mystery hanging about her "romantic" name,—Sea-flower.
  4. (intransitive) To be suspicious.
    • 1887, Marietta Holley, Samantha at Saratoga, Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, Chapter 2, p. 46:
      She wuz soft in her complexion, her lips, her cheeks, her hands, and as I mistrusted at that first minute, and found out afterwards, soft in her head too.
    • 1916, Robert Frost, “A Girl’s Garden” in Mountain Interval, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 61:
      And yes, she has long mistrusted
      That a cider apple tree
      In bearing there to-day is hers,
      Or at least may be.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations

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