You searched for: “miscreant
miscreant (s) (noun), miscreants (pl)
1. A vile wretch; a villain, a depraved rascal; or a generally malicious and contemptible person: A miscreant robbed an elderly lady after she got off the bus and was walking to her apartment.
2. A disbeliever, a heretic; an infidel: The miscreant, who yelled out that the preacher was a liar and didn't know what he was talking about, was forced out of the church service by two deacons who made sure he could not come back in.
4. Etymology: from Old French mescreant, "heretical, unbelieving, infidel"; from mes-, "wrongly"; from Latin mis-, "wrong" + creant, creire, "belief, to believe"; from Latin credere, "to believe".

So, originally a miscreant was an infidel, a heretic, a pagan, or a heathen; literally, being of the “wrong belief”.

A rascal, an evildoer.
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A villain who wants to harm people.
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This entry is located in the following units: -ant, -ants (page 7) cred-, credit-, creed- (page 4) mis- (page 1)
miscreant (adjective), more miscreant, most miscreant
Descriptive of someone who has very bad morals or who is wicked and dishonest: Adam's miscreant behavior of stealing money from the bank, while he was a teller there, resulted in his being convicted of robbery and sentenced to prison.
A villain who steals from someone who is very poor.
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Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more Mickey Bach illustrations.

This entry is located in the following unit: mis- (page 1)
Word Entries at Get Words: “miscreant
A person who does something that is illegal or which is morally wrong. (2)