nocent

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English nocent (guilty), from Latin nocens, present participle of nocere (to harm).

Adjective[edit]

nocent (comparative more nocent, superlative most nocent)

  1. (rare) Causing injury; harmful.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. [], London: [] [Samuel Simmons], [], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: [], London: Basil Montagu Pickering [], 1873, →OCLC, lines 180-187:
      [] [Satan] held on
      His midnight search, where soonest he might finde
      The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
      In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowld,
      His head the midst, well stor’d with suttle wiles:
      Not yet in horrid Shade or dismal Den,
      Nor nocent yet, but on the grassie Herbe
      Fearless unfeard he slept []
    • 1741, I[saac] Watts, chapter 19, in The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: [], London: [] James Brackstone, [], →OCLC, pages 313-314:
      They consider the various known Effects of particular Herbs or Drugs, they meditate what will be the Effect of their Composition, and whether the Virtues of the one will exalt or diminish the Force of the other, or correct any of its nocent Qualities.
  2. (obsolete) guilty; not innocent

Synonyms[edit]

Noun[edit]

nocent (plural nocents)

  1. (obsolete) Guilty person.
    • 1649, Anthony Ascham, Of the Confusions and Revolutions of Governments[1], Part 3, Chapter 4, p. 190:
      [] there is no reason that the innocents and nocents sufferings should be alike, for then punishments would not be so effectuall to terrifie others, nor to give future security to innocence.
    • 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals[2], 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 32:
      [] no nocent is absolved by the verdict of himself.

Antonyms[edit]

Latin[edit]

Verb[edit]

nocent

  1. third-person plural present active indicative of noceō