GUILT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Guilt

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/gɪlt/ Listen

noun

Guilt n.

The criminality and consequent exposure to punishment resulting from willful disobedience of law, or from morally wrong action; the state of one who has broken a moral or political law; crime; criminality; offense against right. "Satan had not answer, but stood struck With guilt of his own sin."

Exposure to any legal penalty or forfeiture. "A ship incurs guilt by the violation of a blockade."

A feeling of regret or remorse for having committed some improper act; a recognition of one's own responsibility for doing something wrong. "Depression is often rooted in guilt which has not been dealt with in an appropriate way." "Guilt is a natural and appropriate consequence to a wrong action."

See images of 'Guilt'

Etymology of 'Guilt'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Guilt" Quotes from Famous Books

... ground and remains perfectly motionless until he perceives himself discovered, when he makes one desperate and final effort to escape, but ceases all struggling as you come up, and behaves in a manner that stamps him a very timid warrior,—cowering to the earth with a mingled look of shame, guilt, and humiliation. A young farmer told me of tracing one with his trap to the border of a wood, where he discovered the cunning rogue trying to hide by embracing a small tree. Most animals, when taken in a trap, show fight; but Reynard ...

— Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers • John Burroughs

... which the law afforded to obtain justice for the injured. We had elicited from the highest criminal judge in the nation an authoritative declaration that the law was what we maintained it to be; and we had given an emphatic warning to those who might be tempted to similar guilt hereafter, that, though they might escape the actual sentence of a criminal tribunal, they were not safe against being put to some trouble and expense in order to avoid it. Colonial governors and other persons in authority, will ...

— Autobiography • John Stuart Mill

... grave shall friend and stranger With ruth and some with envy come: Undishonoured, clear of danger, Clean of guilt, pass ...

— A Shropshire Lad • A. E. Housman

... was like a ray of sunshine falling upon them from out the bosom of a murky and storm-laden sky; and as she flitted fearlessly to and fro among them, they felt for the moment as though a part of their load of guilt had been taken from them; that in some subtle way her proximity had exercised a purifying and refining influence upon them, and that they were no longer the utterly vile, God-forsaken wretches they had been. Fierce, crime-scarred faces ...

— The Pirate Island - A Story of the South Pacific • Harry Collingwood

... them, one and all, And each calm pillow spread; But Guilt was my grim chamberlain That lighted me to bed, And drew my midnight curtains round, With fingers ...

— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various

More quotes...