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The clearing of one's self from a crime of which one was publicly suspected and accused. It was either canonical, which was prescribed by the canon law, the form whereof used in the spiritual court was, that the person suspected take his oath that he was clear of the matter objected against him, and bring his honest ne…

ecifically, the term, originally of forty days, during which a ship arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are station…

were dislocated; -- formerly used judicially for extorting confessions from criminals or suspected persons. During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity. Macaulay.

pearance of a species; a sudden modification which may give rise to new races. We greatly suspect that nature does make considerable jumps in the way of variation now and then, and that these saltations give rise to some of the gaps which appear to exist in the series of known forms. Huxley.

toy which imitates the sound of tearing cloth, -- used by drawing it across the back of unsuspecting persons. [Eng.]

Artless; guileless; simple-hearted; undesigning; unsuspecting; devoid of duplicity. Blackstone. -- Sim"ple-mind`ed*ness, n.

of learning; qualified by study; learned; as, a man well studied in geometry. I shrewdly suspect that he is little studied of a theory of moral proportions. Burke.

e of; to supersede; as, a rival supplants another in the favor of a mistress or a prince. Suspecting that the courtier had supplanted the friend. Bp. Fell.

se supposes foresight. One falsehood always supposes another, and renders all you can say suspected. Female Quixote.

imagine without certain knowledge; to infer on slight grounds; to suppose, conjecture, or suspect; to guess. It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew That what before she but surmised, was true. Dryden. This change was not wrought by altering the form or position of the earth, as was surmised by a very learned man, but…

The act of suspecting; the imagination or apprehension of the existence of something (esp. something wrong or hurtful) without proof, or upon very slight evidence, or upon no evidence. Suspicions among thoughts are like bats among birds, they ever fly by twilight. Bacon.

Inclined to suspect; given or prone to suspicion; apt to imagine without proof. Nature itself, after it has done an injury, will ever be suspicious; and no man can love the person he suspects. South. Many mischievous insects are daily at work to make men of merit suspicious of each other. Pope.

ntrusting (him) with something. Whom, with your power and fortune, sir, you trust, Now to suspect is vain. Dryden.

Having or exercising trust; confiding; unsuspecting; trustful. -- Trust"ing*ly, adv.

The quality or state of being unsuspecting. Dickens.