miscreant

UK/ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/

miscreant adjective: lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.

Adjective

miscreant (comparative more miscreant, superlative most miscreant)

Lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.
- How do we get fair treatment when confronting miscreant workers sometimes means no care at all?1983 December 24, Cindy Patton, “AIDS: Putting the Pieces Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 3
Holding an incorrect religious belief.

Noun

miscreant (plural miscreants)

One who has behaved badly, or illegally.
- The teacher sent the miscreants to see the school principal.
- Thou art a Traitor, and a Miſcreant;
  Too good to be ſo, and too bad to liue,
  Since the more faire and chriſtall is the skie,
  The vglier ſeeme the cloudes that in it flye:1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
One not restrained by moral principles; an unscrupulous villain.
- A meagre Catchpole hurries me to fail; No Miscreant, so remorseless, ever tore
  Thy Journals, Fog, or knock'd at Franklin's doora. 1719, Joseph Addison, A Riddle of Dean Swift's verfified
One who holds a false religious belief; a misbeliever.
- Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad,
  Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles:
  And making bonfires for my ouerthrow.
  But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters
  Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- Arise thou cursed Miscreaunt,
  That hast with knightlesse guile and trecherous train
  Faire knighthood fowly shamed1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 41

miscreant meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

miscreant in Tamil

இழிந்தவன், கெட்டவன், பொல்லான், போக்கிரி

miscreant in Urdu

بدذات, پاجی, شیطان

miscreant in Bengali

দুষ্কৃতী, অপরাধী, বিশ্বাসঘাতক

miscreant in Malayalam

wrongdoer, criminal, culprit: ഖലൻ, ഖലാധമൻ, നീചൻ, അധമൻ, ദുർമ്മാർഗ്ഗി, പാതകൻ

More languagesFewer languages

miscreant in Kannada: ಕೇಡಿ, ಕಿಡಿಗೇಡಿ, ಭ್ರಷ್ಟ, ದುಷ್ಟ
miscreant in Arabic: فَاسِق fāsiq

Forms of miscreant

Adjective
comparative	more miscreant
superlative	most miscreant
alternative form (obsolete)	miscreaunt
Noun
plural	miscreants

Origin of miscreant

From Middle English myscreaunt, miscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (1080) "mis-believer", present participle of mescreire "to misbelieve" (modern mécroire). Cognate with French mécréant.

Questions about miscreant

What does miscreant mean?: Miscreant means lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.
What is miscreant in Tamil?: Miscreant in Tamil is இழிந்தவன், கெட்டவன், பொல்லான். See Miscreant meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is miscreant?: Miscreant can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce miscreant?: Miscreant is pronounced /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/ (UK).

Words near miscreant in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: miscreant (page history and authors); miscreant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miscreant (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miscreant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miscreant (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); miscreant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-miscreant.ogg, en-au-miscreant.ogg.

Cite this entry: “miscreant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/miscreant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.