miscreant
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- miscreaunt (obsolete)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English myscreaunt, miscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (1080) "mis-believer", present participle of mescreire "to misbelieve" (modern mécroire).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK, US) enPR: mĭsʹkrē-ənt, IPA(key): /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file)
Adjective
[edit]miscreant (comparative more miscreant, superlative most miscreant)
- Lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.
- 1983 December 24, Cindy Patton, “AIDS: Putting the Pieces Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 3:
- How do we get fair treatment when confronting miscreant workers sometimes means no care at all?
- (theology) Holding an incorrect religious belief.
Translations
[edit]lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous
holding an incorrect religious belief
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Noun
[edit]miscreant (plural miscreants)
- One who has behaved badly, or illegally.
- The teacher sent the miscreants to see the school principal.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, columns 1–2:
- Thou art a Traitor, and a Miſcreant;
Too good to be ſo, and too bad to liue,
Since the more faire and chriſtall is the skie,
The vglier ſeeme the cloudes that in it flye:
- One not restrained by moral principles; an unscrupulous villain.
- a. 1719, Joseph Addison, A Riddle of Dean Swift's verfified:
- A meagre Catchpole hurries me to fail; No Miscreant, so remorseless, ever tore
Thy Journals, Fog, or knock'd at Franklin's door
- (theology) One who holds a false religious belief; a misbeliever.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
- Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad,
Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles:
And making bonfires for my ouerthrow.
But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters
Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 41:
- Arise thou cursed Miscreaunt,
That hast with knightlesse guile and trecherous train
Faire knighthood fowly shamed
- 1825, Thomas De Quincey, “The Love-charm”, in Quarterly Magazine, Knight:
- Before thine eyes, thou mild and blessed one, said he, half aloud, are these miscreants daring to hold their market, and trafficking in their hellish drugs
Quotations
[edit]- For quotations using this term, see Citations:miscreant.
Synonyms
[edit]- See also Thesaurus:troublemaker
- See also Thesaurus:villain
Translations
[edit]one who has behaved badly or illegally
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one not restrained by moral principles
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one who holds a false religious belief; an unbeliever
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Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Theology
- English nouns
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