guilty Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective responsible for or chargeable with a reprehensible act
    • guilty of murder
    • the guilty person
    • secret guilty deeds
  2. adjective satellite showing a sense of guilt
    hangdog; shamefaced; shamed.
    • a guilty look
    • the hangdog and shamefaced air of the retreating enemy"- Eric Linklater

WordNet

Guilt"y adjective
Etymology
AS. gyltig liable. See Guilt.
Wordforms
comparative Gultier ; superlative Guiltiest
Definitions
  1. Having incurred guilt; criminal; morally delinquent; wicked; chargeable with, or responsible for, something censurable; justly exposed to penalty; -- used with of, and usually followed by the crime, sometimes by the punishment.
    They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Matt. xxvi. 66.
    Nor he, nor you, were guilty of the strife. Dryden.
  2. Evincing or indicating guilt; involving guilt; as, a guilty look; a guilty act; a guilty feeling.
  3. Conscious; cognizant. Obs. B. Jonson.
  4. Condemned to payment. Obs. & R. Dryden.

Webster 1913