misˈtrustful, a.
[f. mistrust n. + -ful.]
Full of or marked by mistrust; wanting in confidence; distrustful, suspicious. Const. of.
| 1529 More Dyaloge iv. i. Wks. 247/2 To shewe our selfe so mistrustful & wauering, that for to serche whether our faith were false or true, we should geue hearing..to a fond frere. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 8, I hold it cowardize, To rest mistrustfull, where a Noble Heart Hath pawn'd an open Hand, in signe of Loue. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 126. 1680 Lond. Gaz. No. 1548/3 We begin here to be somewhat mistrustful of the Merchandises that are brought from Germany. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. ii, Why so mistrustful! Hast thou ever found us false to thee? 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre (1857) 86 She presented it across the counter, accompanying the act by another inquisitive and mistrustful glance. 1886 Nixon Euclid Revised Pref., So far, teachers are either unaware, or mistrustful, of such strength. |
† b. transf. Causing mistrust or suspicion. Obs.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 826 Or stonish'd as night-wanderers often are, Their light blown out in some mistrustful wood. |
Hence misˈtrustfully adv., with mistrust or suspicion, distrustfully; misˈtrustfulness, the condition or quality of being mistrustful; want of confidence, suspiciousness.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 294 The mystrustfulnesse of the Byzancians he laied on the necke of..y⊇ capitain. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. (1590) 181 b, A mistrustfulnes of my selfe, as one strayed from his best strength. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxxiii, Mistrustfully he trusteth, and he dreadingly did dare. 1672 Eachard Hobbs's State Nat. (1705) 5, I am confident there must be some occasion or other of this so very great jealousie and mistrustfulness of yours. 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 330 Those five Cold fingers, tendered so mistrustfully. 1879 Meredith Egoist xxvii. (1889) 258 She controlled her alert mistrustfulness. |