suspicion

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong.

   “[…]purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment.”

   “His unruly hair was slicked down with water, and as Jessamy introduced him to Miss Brindle his face assumed a cherubic innocence which would immediately have aroused the suspicions of anyone who knew him.”

   “"When it comes to strangers with guns," I told her, "I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust."”

   “Given these entrenched ideological assumptions about the colonial order, it is no wonder that the state and those groups with an interest in the status quo viewed with suspicion and hostility any challenges to the fixed and "natural" boundaries between different sorts of people.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The condition of being suspected.
3. (countable, uncountable)Uncertainty, doubt.

   “In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.[…]Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.”

4. (countable, uncountable)A trace, or slight indication.

   “a suspicion of a smile”

   “The features are mild but expressive, with just a suspicion[…]of saturnine or sarcastic humor.”

   “Keep hot for 3 minutes, then turn right side up, polish the top with a suspicion of butter, cut in quarters, and send to table.”

5. (countable, uncountable)The imagining of something without evidence.

verb

1. (dialectal)To suspect; to have suspicions.

   ““Well, what’s more dangerous than coming here in the day time!—anybody would suspicion us that saw us.””

   “Mulvaney continued— "Whin I was full awake the palanquin was set down in a street, I suspicioned, for I cud hear people passin' an' talkin'. But I knew well I was far from home. […]”

   “"I've been suspicioning here was where they got their information right along," the sheriff commented, and slipped the handcuffs on the landlord.”