• enPR: sŭsʹpĕkt, IPA: /ˈsʌs.pɛkt/
• enPR: səs.pĕktʹ, IPA: /səsˈpɛkt/

suspect (suspects, present participle suspecting; past and past participle suspected)

1. (transitive) To imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof.

   to suspect the presence of disease

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     From her hand I could suspect no ill.

2. (transitive) To distrust or have doubts about (something or someone).

   to suspect the truth of a story

3. (transitive) To believe (someone) to be guilty.

   I suspect him of being the thief.

4. (intransitive) To have suspicion.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To look up to; to respect.

• (imagine or suppose to be true) imagine, suppose, think
• (distrust) distrust, doubt
• (believe to be guilty) accuse, point the finger at

• German: vermuten
• Portuguese: suspeitar
• Russian: подозрева́ть
• Spanish: barruntar

• German: misstrauen
• Portuguese: suspeitar
• Russian: подозрева́ть

• French: soupçonner
• German: verdächtigen
• Italian: sospettare
• Portuguese: suspeitar
• Russian: подозрева́ть
• Spanish: sospechar

• German: einen Verdacht haben
• Italian: sospettare
• Portuguese: suspeitar
• Russian: подозрева́ть

suspect (plural suspects)

1. A person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.
   • 1942, Casablanca (film), written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch

     Round up the usual suspects.

• French: suspect
• German: Verdächtiger, Verdächtige
• Portuguese: suspeito, suspeita
• Russian: подозрева́емый
• Spanish: sospechoso

suspect

1. Viewed with suspicion; suspected.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Book the Second”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398 ↗:

     What I can do or offer is suspect.

     In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.

2. (nonstandard) Viewing with suspicion; suspecting.
   • 2004, Will Nickell, letter to the editor of Field & Stream, Volume CIX Number 8 (December 2004–January 2005), page 18 ↗

     Now I’m suspect of other advice that I read in your pages.

• (viewed with suspicion) dodgy (informal), doubtful, dubious, fishy (informal), suspicious

• German: verdächtig
• Portuguese: suspeito

• suspicion
• suspicious