GUILTY (guiltier, guiltiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: guiltier    , guiltiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does guilty mean? 

• GUILTY (adjective)
  The adjective GUILTY has 2 senses:

1. responsible for or chargeable with a reprehensible act

2. showing a sense of guilt

  Familiarity information: GUILTY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GUILTY (adjective)

Comparative: guiltier   
Superlative: guiltiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Responsible for or chargeable with a reprehensible act

Context example:

secret guilty deeds

Similar:

at fault (deserving blame)

blamable; blameable; blameful; blameworthy; censurable; culpable (deserving blame or censure as being wrong or evil or injurious)

bloodguilty (guilty of murder or bloodshed)

chargeable; indictable (liable to be accused, or cause for such liability)

conscience-smitten (affected by conscience)

criminal (guilty of crime or serious offense)

delinquent (guilty of a misdeed)

finable; fineable (liable to a fine)

guilt-ridden (feeling or revealing a sense of guilt)

punishable (liable to or deserving punishment)

red-handed (in the act of committing a crime or other reprehensible act)

Also:

inculpative; inculpatory (causing blame to be imputed to)

unrighteous (not righteous)

Antonym:

innocent (free from evil or guilt)

Derivation:

guilt; guiltiness (the state of having committed an offense)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Showing a sense of guilt

Synonyms:

guilty; hangdog; shamed; shamefaced

Context example:

the hangdog and shamefaced air of the retreating enemy

Similar:

ashamed (feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse)

Derivation:

guilt (remorse caused by feeling responsible for some offense)

guiltiness (the state of having committed an offense)

 Context examples 

I am but a woman; but I should be unworthy of myself and of my papa, if I were guilty of such absurd weakness.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She had been guilty of something she would not have her brothers see, nor Olney see.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He had miscalculated once, but he would not be guilty of it a second time.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

If she is, God forbid that she should suffer as guilty.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Having learned to snuggle, White Fang was guilty of it often.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Johnson has been guilty of speaking his mind too freely, and has collided two or three times with Wolf Larsen over the pronunciation of his name.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If his own guilty conscience had not struck him down it is likely enough that I might have had his blood upon my soul.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We were all guilty—if that is guilt—but he was not.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She and Hans, without leaving their seats, brought in the jury's verdict of guilty.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)