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.
   • 1983 December 24, Cindy Patton, “AIDS: Putting the Pieces Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 3:

     How do we get fair treatment when confronting miscreant workers sometimes means no care at all?

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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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: 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