miscreant

• miscreaunt (obsolete)

From Middle English myscreaunt, miscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (1080) "mis-believer", present participle of mescreire "to misbelieve" (modern mécroire).

• (UK, US) enPR: mĭsʹkrē-ənt, IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/

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miscreant (comparative more miscreant, superlative most miscreant)

1. Lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.
2. (theology) Holding an incorrect religious belief.

miscreant (plural miscreants)

1. One who has behaved badly, or illegally.

   The teacher sent the miscreants to see the school principal.

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, columns 1–2:

     Thou art a Traitor, and a Miſcreant;
     Too good to be ſo, and too bad to liue,
     Since the more faire and chriſtall is the skie,
     The vglier ſeeme the cloudes that in it flye:

2. One not restrained by moral principles; an unscrupulous villain.
   • a. 1719, Joseph Addison, A Riddle of Dean Swift's verfified:

     A meagre Catchpole hurries me to fail; No Miscreant, so remorseless, ever tore
     Thy Journals, Fog, or knock'd at Franklin's door

3. (theology) One who holds a false religious belief; a misbeliever.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad,
     Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles:
     And making bonfires for my ouerthrow.
     But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters
     Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 41:

     Arise thou cursed Miscreaunt,
     That hast with knightlesse guile and trecherous train
     Faire knighthood fowly shamed

   • 1825, Thomas De Quincey, “The Love-charm”, in Quarterly Magazine, Knight:

     Before thine eyes, thou mild and blessed one, said he, half aloud, are these miscreants daring to hold their market, and trafficking in their hellish drugs

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:miscreant.

• See also Thesaurus:troublemaker
• See also Thesaurus:villain

• Encratism, minecarts