mistrust

From Middle English mistrust; equivalent to mis- +‎ trust.

• IPA^(key): /mɪsˈtɹʌst/

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• Rhymes: -ʌst

mistrust (usually uncountable, plural mistrusts)

1. Lack of trust or confidence; distrust, untrust.

• distrust
• untrust
• wantrust (obsolete)

• trust

• mistrustful

mistrust (third-person singular simple present mistrusts, present participle mistrusting, simple past and past participle mistrusted)

1. (transitive) To have no confidence in (something or someone).
   • 1670, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC, page 104:

     The Britans marching out againſt them, and miſtruſting thir own power, ſend to Germanus and his Collegue, repoſing more in the ſpiritual ſtrength of thoſe two men, than in thir own thouſands arm’d.

   • 1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 311, column 1:

     He mistrusted my youth, my common-sense, and my seamanship, and made a point of showing it in a hundred little ways.

2. (transitive) To be wary, suspicious or doubtful of (something or someone).
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, Partition 3, Section 3, Member 2, Subsection 1, p. 683:

     It is most strange to report what outragious acts […] haue beene committed […] by women especially, that will runne after their husbands into all places, all companies, as Iouianus Pontanus wife did by him, follow him whether soeuer hee goes, it matters not, or vpon what businesse, rauing […] , cursing, swearing, and mistrusting euery one she sees.

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I Look about Me, and Make a Discovery”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 199:

     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 […]

3. (transitive) To suspect, to imagine or suppose (something) to be the case.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 171, column 2:

     […] I propheſie, that many a thouſand,
     Which now miſtruſt no parcell of my feare,
     And many an old mans ſighe, and many a Widdowes,
     And many an Orphans water-ſtanding-eye,
     Men for their Sonnes, Wiues for their Husbands,
     Orphans, for their Parents timeles death,
     Shall rue the houre that euer thou was’t borne.

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar‎, London, page 51:

     As soon as it was dark enough to conceal our Flight, we assembl’d together, and took a considerable Quantity of Muslins and Callicoes, and hung them upon the Bushes, that the Spies, who we knew watch’d us, might not any ways mistrust our sudden Removal.

   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:

     Those who had known the circumstances of her discovery, had gradually come to look upon her as the child of those who treasured her as if she had been their own; and the playmates of her childhood days had never mistrusted there was a mystery hanging about her "romantic" name,—Sea-flower.

   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

     "So I'm here to say I'm sorry." Another big gulp.
     Troop heaved himself slowly off the locker he was sitting on and held out an eleven-inch hand. "I mistrusted 'twould do you sights o' good; an' this shows I weren't mistook in my jedgments^[sic]."

4. (intransitive) To be suspicious.
   • 1887, Marietta Holley, chapter 2, in Samantha at Saratoga‎, Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, page 46:

     She wuz soft in her complexion, her lips, her cheeks, her hands, and as I mistrusted at that first minute, and found out afterwards, soft in her head too.

   • 1916, Robert Frost, “A Girl’s Garden”, in Mountain Interval‎, New York: Henry Holt & Co, page 61:

     And yes, she has long mistrusted
     That a cider apple tree
     In bearing there to-day is hers,
     Or at least may be.

• distrust

• trust

mistrust (third-person singular simple present mistrusts, present participle mistrusting, simple past and past participle mistrusted)

1. (transitive) To be wary, suspicious or doubtful of (something or someone).
   • c. 1380s, Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, lines 1609-1610:

     Mistrust me not thus causeles, for routhe;

     Sin to be trewe I have yow plight my trouthe.