Library / English Dictionary

MISTRUST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trait of not trusting others

Synonyms:

distrust; distrustfulness; mistrust

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("mistrust" is a kind of...):

trait (a distinguishing feature of your personal nature)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mistrust"):

suspicion; suspiciousness (being of a suspicious nature)

Derivation:

mistrust (regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Doubt about someone's honesty

Synonyms:

distrust; misgiving; mistrust; suspicion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("mistrust" is a kind of...):

doubt; doubtfulness; dubiety; dubiousness; incertitude; uncertainty (the state of being unsure of something)

Derivation:

mistrust (regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in

Synonyms:

distrust; mistrust; suspect

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "mistrust" is one way to...):

disbelieve; discredit (reject as false; refuse to accept)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "mistrust"):

doubt (lack confidence in or have doubts about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to mistrust the prisoners

Antonym:

trust (have confidence or faith in)

Derivation:

mistrust (the trait of not trusting others)

mistrust (doubt about someone's honesty)

Credits

 Context examples: 

But Miss Mills, mistrusting the acceptability of her presence to the higher powers, had not yet gone; and we were all benighted in the Desert of Sahara.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Nature seemed to me benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I, who from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her with filial fondness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Don't mistrust me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I comprehended how he should despise himself for the feverish influence it exercised over him; how he should wish to stifle and destroy it; how he should mistrust its ever conducting permanently to his happiness or hers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

If I had any doubt of him, I suppose this half awakened it; but I am inclined to believe that with the simple confidence of a child, and the natural reliance of a child upon superior years (qualities I am very sorry any children should prematurely change for worldly wisdom), I had no serious mistrust of him on the whole, even then.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

My visitors seemed to breathe more freely when he was gone; but my own relief was very great, for besides the constraint, arising from that extraordinary sense of being at a disadvantage which I always had in this man's presence, my conscience had embarrassed me with whispers that I had mistrusted his master, and I could not repress a vague uneasy dread that he might find it out.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Come!” said she, accepting the offer of my hand to help her over the fender, and looking wistfully up into my face, “you know you wouldn't mistrust me, if I was a full-sized woman!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The innocent beauty of her face was not as innocent to me as it had been; I mistrusted the natural grace and charm of her manner; and when I looked at Agnes by her side, and thought how good and true Agnes was, suspicions arose within me that it was an ill-assorted friendship.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)