SUSPICIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does suspicious mean? 

• SUSPICIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective SUSPICIOUS has 2 senses:

1. openly distrustful and unwilling to confide

2. not as expected

  Familiarity information: SUSPICIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUSPICIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Openly distrustful and unwilling to confide

Synonyms:

leery; mistrustful; suspicious; untrusting; wary

Similar:

distrustful (having or showing distrust)

Derivation:

suspicion (doubt about someone's honesty)

suspiciousness (being of a suspicious nature)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not as expected

Synonyms:

fishy; funny; shady; suspect; suspicious

Context example:

suspicious behavior

Similar:

questionable (subject to question)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Derivation:

suspiciousness (being of a suspicious nature)

 Context examples 

Even after I became suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind old clergyman.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From these experiences he became suspicious of all children.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Who are you, and how do you get my name so pat?” the countryman answered, with a suspicious flash of a pair of cunning eyes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I found a vast amount of profession, varying very little in character: varying very little (which I thought exceedingly suspicious), even in words.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She sleep all the time; till at the last, I feel myself to suspicious grow, and attempt to wake her.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The wolf was suspicious and afraid; for Buck made three of him in weight, while his head barely reached Buck’s shoulder.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

All-gone, cried the mouse that is the most suspicious name of all!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I don't wish to be unjust or suspicious, but I shouldn't wonder if they never came at all.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A surgical procedure in which a portion of a lump or suspicious area is removed for diagnosis.

(Incisional biopsy, NCI Dictionary)

If I avoided his name entirely, it would look suspicious.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)