miscreant
/ˈmɪskrɪənt
/noun
1A person who has done something wrong or unlawful: the police are straining every nerve to bring the miscreants to justice...
- Four hundred years ago today, in 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was averted, miscreants brought to the fearsome justice of the age and a massive disruption to English history avoided.
- She had never seen so many assassins and miscreants gathered together under the same banner in order to annihilate someone.
- This is how the great criminals and miscreants of the world get started.
Synonyms
criminal, culprit, wrongdoer, malefactor, offender, villain, black hat, lawbreaker, evil-doer, convict, delinquent, sinner, transgressor, outlaw, trespasser, scoundrel, wretch, reprobate, rogue, rascal;
Law malfeasant, misfeasor
1.1 archaic A heretic.
adjective
1(Of a person) behaving badly or unlawfully: her miscreant husband...
- To be sure, discord is not good, but one might suggest that honest disagreement among bishops is a healthy thing, not least in holding negligent and miscreant brothers to account.
- It just goes to prove that, while the most miscreant man can be terrifically terrorizing, watching a simple movie made about him can be equally torturous.
- She was on the first floor, after all, and it would not do if Nana found out she was going to talk to the miscreant sailors she was so pitted against.
1.1 archaic Heretical.
Origin
Middle English (as an adjective in the sense 'disbelieving'): from Old French mescreant, present participle of mescreire 'disbelieve', from mes- 'mis-' + creire 'believe' (from Latin credere).
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