Also 6 Sc. -ek, eck, 6–7 contr. pa. pple. suspect. [f. L. suspect-, pa. ppl. stem of suspicĕre to look up, look up to, admire, esteem, (chiefly in pa. pple.) to suspect, f. su(b)- (see SUB- ad init. and 24, 25) + specĕre to look, cognate with Skr. spaç to see, OHG. spehôn (see ESPY).]
1. trans. To imagine something evil, wrong or undesirable in (a person or thing) on slight or no evidence; to believe or fancy to be guilty or faulty, with insufficient proof or knowledge; to have suspicions or doubts about, be suspicious of.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 1632. But he the Iug, that no man may susspek, Euery thing ful Iustly sal correk.
1515. Sampson in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), I. i. 16. As they heard the tenor of the breve, one of them with a quick mind suspected the breve in three places.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 71. Zwynglius dred bad measure suspecting bothe the men and the place. Ibid., 239. Bothe Fraunce & Englande leuie great force of men, whiche is greatly to be suspected.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 162. Whose owne hard dealings teaches them suspect The thoughts of others.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 53. The disunitie of the professors made many to suspect the profession.
1649. Lovelace, Poems, 38. Souldiers suspected of their courage.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 74. I suspect all those Relations concerning Trees growing at the bottom of the Sea.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 97/2. Did you see upon the face of the bond any thing to make you suspect it?
1781. Cowper, Table-t., 141. To be suspected, thwarted, and withstood, E’en when he labours for his country’s good.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xiii. 170. The people suspected the gentlemen, the gentlemen feared the people.
1879. ‘E. Garrett’ (Mrs. Mayo), House by Works, iv. 67. Jacob gave Paul no reason to suspect the effect of a wider scope of life and happiness.
1897. ‘G. Allen,’ Typewriter Girl, vi. 60. The meat and bread were wholesome; but I suspected their cleanliness.
† b. Suspected to (a person): mistrusted by; = suspect to, SUSPECT a. c. Obs.
After L. suspectus with the dative.
1570. Buchanan, Admon., Wks. (S.T.S.), 25. Not suspectit to ane king and assurit of his awin estait.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard. (1618), 268. The licentious behauiour of the Commons was suspected to him.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 165. He … leaves his Race Growing into a Nation, and now grown Suspected to a sequent King.
1692. Dryden, St. Euremont’s Ess., 212. A Science which was already suspected to me appeared too vain to enslave my self to it any longer.
1769. Junius Lett., i. (1788), 38. Behold … the administration of justice become … suspected to the whole body of the people.
1807. Robinson, Archæol. Græca, III. ix. 240. To the more sagacious … the answers of the oracle were suspected.
† c. Const. clause: To doubt whether.… rare.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 337. I shrewdly suspect whether ever this were the Hecatompylos of Ortellius.
2. To imagine or fancy something, esp. something wrong, about (a person or thing) with slight or no proof: with various const. expressing that which is so imagined. a. const. of, † with, † for.
1483–4. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 3 (heading), An Act for baylyng of persons suspected of Felony.
1502. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., II. 348. Certane personis that wer suspeckit of murthur.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. iv. 7. I rather will suspect the Sunne with cold Then thee with wantonnes.
a. 1623. Buck, Rich. III., I. (1646), 4. Philippe le Grosse … suspected him for too familiar commerce with his bed.
1641. Prynne, Antipathie, I. i. 29. Many suspected for doing it, were committed to prison.
1727. Swift, Circumcis. E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 165. Most of the children of Israel are suspected for holding the same doctrine.
1802. Maria Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. iii. 17. At least tell me, that you do not really suspect me of any hand in her death.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, iii. 36. Those who are too well acquainted with the sagacity and energy of Hekekyan Bey to suspect him of having been deceived.
1897. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, I. i. I half began to suspect myself of secret impulses of a savage kind.
b. with obj. and compl. (sometimes introduced by as or for), and in corresp. passive use. Now rare or Obs.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, II. (1570), B iij b/2. Thou mayst suspect and trowe Him more in fauour … then thou.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 186. Than you, belike, suspect these Noblemen, As guilty of Duke Humphrie’s timelesse death. Ibid. (1594), Rich. III., I. iii. 223. Thy Friends suspect for Traytors. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., II. iii. 107. Least she suspect, as he do’s, Her Children, not her Husbands.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 337. Let us not then suspect our happie State Left so imperfet by the Maker wise.
1689. in Acts Parlt. Scotl. (1875), XII. 58/2. A warrant to cite such as are suspect guilty to compeir.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 72. One would not suspect him by his Phiz, for a Politician.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., I. 418. At thirty man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.
c. with obj. and inf., and in corresp. passive use.
1525. [see SUSPECT a. 1].
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 176. The citezens of the citie … they sore suspected, rather to fauour then to hate, the erles of Marche, & Warwycke.
1604. Shaks., Oth., V. i. 85. I do suspect this Trash To be a party in this Iniury.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 120. His gracious majesty hath been suspected to be popishly inclined.
1691. Ray, Creation, Pref. (1692), A v. By Virtue of my Function, I suspect my self to be obliged to write something in Divinity.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, etc., 68. Who would suspect this heroic strain to be a plagiarism?
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlem., lxxi. He believed that Lydgate suspected his orders to have been intentionally disobeyed.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 486. [They] have recorded cases of hæmatemesis suspected to own a similar cause.
† d. with obj. and clause introduced by that (cf. 3 b). Obs. rare.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic (1580), 47. We suspect suche a one that he is not altogether cleare.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 89. Sorry I am, my Noble Cousin should Suspect me, that I meane no good to him.
3. To imagine or fancy (something) to be possible or likely; to have a faint notion or inkling of; to surmise. a. with simple object.
c. 1550. Lloyd, Treas. Health, T j. Geue the same vnto the pacient to drinke in the houre suspectid of the feuers approching.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., 1714/2. Much suspected by mee, Nothing proued can be. Quod Elizabeth the prisoner.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, ii. 13. We hear, that long we haue suspect, That thou art read in Magicks mysterie.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Suspicion (Arb.), 528. There is Nothing makes a Man Suspect much, more then to Know little.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 11. If all be true that is suspected, or halfe what is related, there have not wanted, many strange deceptions.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 23. They had thought of an expedient … and that it should be Executed before it should be Suspected.
1777. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 147. You do not … suspect half enough the villany of others.
1827. Scott, Chron. Canongate, iv. Whether the … old woman did, or did not, suspect the identity of her guest with [etc.].
1862. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XII. iii. (1872), IV. 145. Who dared suspect our King’s indifference to Protestantism?
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, ii. 17. This is the first symptom looked for when opium poisoning is suspected.
b. with obj. clause; also parenthetically, with as or so, or ellipt.
1549. Compl. Scot., xii. 100. Pontius his sone suspekit that his father dottit in folie throcht his grit aige.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 182. Suspecting that there was some unknowne vertue in that picture, he called it backe.
1654–66. Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 495. He read something in my Face which made him … suspect who I was.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 77. They have strangled … Sultan Osman, because (as they suspected) he had a mind to rid himself of them.
1788. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 415. I … suspected it was too late for any kind of medicine to produce any valuable effect.
1815. Scott, Guy M., l. I believe I may have some wrongs to repair towards you—I have often suspected so.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., viii. II. 348, note. The late Alexander Knox … learned, I suspect, much of his theological system from Fowler’s writings.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxxiii. (1878), 558. I did not even suspect how ill she would be.
1875. Blackie, Four Phases Morals, i. 82. The young Examinee is pleasantly surprised at finding that he knows more than he suspected.
4. absol. (from 1 or 3) or intr. To imagine something, esp. some evil, as possible or likely; to have or feel suspicion.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 1153. It shall suspect where is no cause of feare, It shall not feare where it should most mistrust. Ibid. (1604), Oth., III. iii. 170. Oh, what damned minutes tels he ore, Who dotes, yet doubts: Suspects, yet soundly loues?
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 55. It will then be as lawful for me to Suspect as to Judge more absolutely.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, V. ii. 43. Some … slave…, bade to answer, not as he believes, But as those may suspect or do desire Whose questions thence suggest their own reply.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, ix. Iola was too young and simple to suspect or to doubt.
† 5. trans. With reference to a future possibility: To expect; esp. to expect with dread or apprehension. With simple obj. or obj. cl.; rarely with inf.) Obs. or merged in 3.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXXIII. (Percy Soc.), 162. I dyde suspecte That the great gyaunte unto me wolde hast.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. vi. 330. When the siege of Jerusalem was suspected from Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel. Ibid. (1660), Mixt Contempl. (1841), 257. The innocent child whose precipice they suspected.
1787. William of Normandy, I. 131. He rather suspected to receive a reward for his pretended fidelity.
1794. Paley, Evid., III. iv. (1817), 300. One might have suspected, that at least all those who stood by the sepulchre when Lazarus was raised, would have believed in Jesus.
† 6. To regard, take note of, care for; to respect.
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 70. Tush the Lord regardeth not the way of sinners, nor suspecteth the misdeeds of men.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. ii. 8. They were … continued in theyr being by that diuine power, perpetually maintaining and suspecting them.
1649. Davenant, Love & Honour, V. iii. 22. It shall be openly perform’d, to shew I not suspect men’s censure or dislike.
1656. North’s Plutarch, 927 (Epaminondas). Not suspecting [edd. 1612, 1631 respecting] the dignity of an Ambassador, nor of his Country.
† 7. With inf. To think in the least, have any idea of (doing something). Obs. rare–1.
1628. Gaule, Pract. The. (1629), 179. Farre be it from vs, wee should once suspect to chide him.
Hence Suspecting vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 54. Not that we think Suspecting to be in itself unlawful.
1732. Swift, Advant. by Repealing Test, ¶ 24. If I had not known it already to have gotten ground in many suspecting heads.
