GUILTLESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does guiltless mean? 

• GUILTLESS (adjective)
  The adjective GUILTLESS has 1 sense:

1. free from evil or guilt

  Familiarity information: GUILTLESS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GUILTLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Free from evil or guilt

Synonyms:

clean-handed; guiltless; innocent

Context example:

the principle that one is innocent until proved guilty

Similar:

absolved; clear; cleared; exculpated; exonerated; vindicated (freed from any question of guilt)

acquitted; not guilty (declared not guilty of a specific offense or crime; legally blameless)

blameless; inculpable; irreproachable; unimpeachable (free of guilt; not subject to blame)

Also:

exculpatory (clearing of guilt or blame)

righteous (characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice)

Derivation:

guiltlessness (a state of innocence)

 Context examples 

You perhaps will find some means to justify my poor guiltless Justine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The second day's trial was not so guiltless.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Judge Scott did not know all things, and he did not know that he was party to a police conspiracy, that the evidence was hatched and perjured, that Jim Hall was guiltless of the crime charged.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This touched the old king’s heart, and he thought his son might still be guiltless, and said to his court, O that my son were still alive! how it grieves me that I had him killed!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

‘There is a God in heaven, Mr. Holmes, and that same God who has punished that wicked man will show, in His own good time, that my son’s hands are guiltless of his blood.’

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

I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as that of crime.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I was firmly convinced in my own mind that Justine, and indeed every human being, was guiltless of this murder.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I am not one of your enemies, I believed you guiltless, notwithstanding every evidence, until I heard that you had yourself declared your guilt.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My father observed with pain the alteration perceptible in my disposition and habits and endeavoured by arguments deduced from the feelings of his serene conscience and guiltless life to inspire me with fortitude and awaken in me the courage to dispel the dark cloud which brooded over me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)