mistrusting

Verb

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).
   • 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.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
2. (transitive) To be wary, suspicious or doubtful of (something or someone).
   • 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 […]...1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, Partition 3, Section 3, Member 2, Subsection 1, p. 683
3. (transitive) To suspect, to imagine or suppose (something) to be the case.
   • […] 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...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...
4. (intransitive) To be suspicious.
   • 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.1887, Marietta Holley, chapter 2, in Samantha at Saratoga, Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, page 46

See all 5 meanings of mistrust