miscreants

Noun

miscreant (plural miscreants)

1. One who has behaved badly, or illegally.
   • The teacher sent the miscreants to see the school principal.
2. 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
3. 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...

See all 5 meanings of miscreant