miscreant

adjective mis·cre·ant \ ˈmis-krē-ənt \

Updated on: 21 Apr 2018

Definition of miscreant

1 : unbelieving, heretical

miscreant pagans

2 : depraved, villainous

miscreant behavior

miscreant gangs

Origin and Etymology of miscreant

Middle English miscreaunt, from Anglo-French mescreant, present participle of mescreire to disbelieve, from mes- + creire to believe, from Latin credere — more at creed

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

miscreant

noun

Definition of miscreant

1 : infidel, heretic

2 : one who behaves criminally or viciously

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Examples of miscreant in a Sentence

He supports tough penalties against corporate miscreants.
halt, vile miscreant, and face justice!

Recent Examples of miscreant from the Web

That is why some EU governments want to use an imminent debate over the club’s multi-year budget to threaten their miscreant peers with the loss of funds.

— The Economist, "The EU is tolerating—and enabling—authoritarian kleptocracy in Hungary," 5 Apr. 2018
The poster is now on the wall of shame in the sheriff's office, along with the other wanted miscreants, WBRE-TV reports.

— doyle rice, USA TODAY, "Groundhog crime: Arrest warrant issued for Punxsutawney Phil for 'deception'," 26 Mar. 2018
In a series of trippy, spooky vignettes, Cartoon Homme goes on to encounter flying coffins, dancing skeletons, space invaders and other miscreants and ne’er-do-wells.

— morgan enos, Billboard, "Queens of the Stone Age Reveal Kooky, Frightful Video for 'Head Like a Haunted House'," 19 Mar. 2018
And don't worry too much about potential miscreants spoofing your laser returns or one lidar-equipped car blinding another: these units are pulse-encoded and will ignore all but their own signals.

— jonathan m. gitlin, Ars Technica, "The car of the future is taking shape—and it will know how we feel about it," 11 Feb. 2018
Lurid accusations sit at his door, from bullying commissioners to threatening miscreant journalists with violence.

— The Economist, "Charlemagne: Martin Selmayr," 15 Mar. 2018
There’s no need to revisit Mike Brown’s long history of hiring miscreants and malcontents.

— richard fitch, Cincinnati.com, "Guest TML: Who are Dey? We know. Don't we?," 19 Jan. 2018
Angels and miscreants got in on the action, pushing and pulling, the Devil stretching out his hand and zapping everyone; God responded in kind.

— margaret lyons, New York Times, "New York Has Its ‘Jerry Springer’ Moment, With Arias and Dancing," 17 Jan. 2018
The House miscreants were a bipartisan group, and the reasons three Republicans had to cut short their careers give a picture of the (at least recent) Rabelaisian life in the U.S. House of Representatives.

— elizabeth drew, New Republic, "Capital Offenses," 8 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'miscreant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.