suspicious Hear it!

suspicious Definition

sus·pi·cious (-əs)

adjective

  1. arousing or likely to arouse suspicion in others
  2. showing or expressing suspicion
    1. feeling suspicion
    2. tending habitually to suspect, esp. to suspect evil

Etymology: ME suspecious < OFr < L suspiciosus

suspicious Related Forms
sus·pi′·ciously adverb sus·pi′·cious·ness noun
suspicious Synonyms

suspicious

modif.

  1. Entertaining suspicion

    jealous, distrustful, suspecting, doubting, questioning, wary, leery, doubtful, dubious, suspect, in doubt, without faith, skeptical, unbelieving, without belief, wondering.

    Antonyms trusting*, trustful, without any doubt of.

  2. Arousing suspicion

    not quite trustworthy, questionable, queer, suspect, irregular, unusual, uncommon, different, peculiar, open to question, out of line, shady, equivocal, overt, debatable, disputable.

    Antonyms regular*, usual, common.

suspicious Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • motive: The clear implication here is a reminder to be suspicious of the motives of those who advocate a 'one best method ' .
  • stranger: You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.
  • caller: Police are linking the two incidents and reminded elderly and vulnerable people to be suspicious of all unexpected callers.
  • intention: This in turn kept the Germans suspicious of the intentions of the French.

Modifying Another Word

  • deeply: Some commentators are deeply suspicious of the way the Deep Impact data is being handled.
  • understandably: People are understandably suspicious about the way some organizations treat them, but good Data Protection practice reassures them that they can trust you.
  • tad: I'm always a tad suspicious when I receive a demo that actually sounds quite good ' Is this for real?
  • mutually: New security issues arise when the user may not be trusted, or the user and the host computer's owner are mutually suspicious.

Modifies a noun

  • circumstance: At least five black people have lost their lives in suspicious circumstances in the custody of the police in the last year.
  • lesion: Secondary prevention of melanoma relies on early detection and biopsy of suspicious lesions.
  • transaction: In the event of any suspicious transactions arising, the Bank is obliged to notify the National Criminal Investigation Service.
  • outbreak: The United States is also seeking the elaboration of a mechanism for international investigations of suspicious outbreaks of disease or alleged BW incidents.
  • incident: There had been a number of suspicious incidents over recent months.
  • caller: Let the police and your neighbors know if you have had a suspicious caller at the door.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: Maybe she should have worn gloves in case he became suspicious - had the envelope dusted for prints.
  • deem: For example the police have the right to take anyone who they deem suspicious to the police station for interrogation.
  • seem: You should be vigilant and not execute any e-mail attachments that seem suspicious.
  • remain: The police remained sufficiently suspicious to follow him up for a number of years adding progress reports to the file.
  • appear: Advice to post room staff: There are a number of signs that may make a letter etc. appear suspicious.
  • look: Two MEN sitting at a table next to the stage look very suspicious.
suspicious Quotes

   I am still studying verbs and the mystery of how they connect nouns. I am more suspicious of adjectives than at any other time in all my born days.

—Sandburg, Carl