SCEPTICAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sceptical mean? 

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

1. marked by or given to doubt

2. denying or questioning the tenets of especially a religion

  Familiarity information: SCEPTICAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCEPTICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by or given to doubt

Synonyms:

doubting; questioning; sceptical; skeptical

Context example:

a skeptical listener

Similar:

distrustful (having or showing distrust)

Derivation:

sceptic (someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs)

scepticism (the disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Denying or questioning the tenets of especially a religion

Synonyms:

disbelieving; sceptical; skeptical; unbelieving

Context example:

a skeptical approach to the nature of miracles

Similar:

incredulous (not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving)

Derivation:

sceptic (someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs)

scepticism (the disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge)

 Context examples 

In temper he is naturally acid and sceptical.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoist—and that, let me tell you, is much in this age, so sceptical and selfish.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

We may, perhaps, succeed in restoring her to them, if she is not obstinate: but I trace lines of force in her face which make me sceptical of her tractability.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was Wolf Larsen’s last word, “bosh,” sceptical and invincible to the end.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

No, no, from a sceptical student in the back row.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And then, without rhyme or reason, all sceptical, my mind flew back to a small biographical note in the red-bound Who’s Who, and I said to myself, She was born in Cambridge, and she is twenty-seven years old.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He listened with a sceptical smile on his gaunt face, and roared with laughter on hearing that the Professor had convinced me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was an answer that appalled the most sceptical of us, and we felt individually that in the presence of such earnest purpose as the Professor's, a purpose which could thus use the to him most sacred of things, it was impossible to distrust.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Challenger struts about like a prize peacock, and Summerlee is silent, but still sceptical.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)