nocent

English

Etymology

From Middle English nocent (“guilty”), from Latin nocens, present participle of nocere (“to harm”).

Adjective

nocent (comparative more nocent, superlative most nocent)

1. (rare) Causing injury; harmful.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 180-187:

     […] [Satan] held on
     His midnight search, where soonest he might finde
     The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
     In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowld,
     His head the midst, well stor’d with suttle wiles:
     Not yet in horrid Shade or dismal Den,
     Nor nocent yet, but on the grassie Herbe
     Fearless unfeard he slept […]

   • 1741, I[saac] Watts, chapter 19, in The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC, pages 313-314:

     They consider the various known Effects of particular Herbs or Drugs, they meditate what will be the Effect of their Composition, and whether the Virtues of the one will exalt or diminish the Force of the other, or correct any of its nocent Qualities.

2. (obsolete) guilty; not innocent
   • 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, “King John”, in Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book II, page [330]:

     Nocent, not innocent he is, that seeketh to deface,
     By word the thing, that he by deed hat taught men to imbrace;
     Which being now a Bishop old, doth study to destroy
     The thing, which he a young man once did covet to injoy.

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   • 1571, Richard Edwards, Damon and Pythias:

     He is not innocent, whom the kinge iudgeth nocent.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:harmful

Noun

nocent (plural nocents)

1. (obsolete) Guilty person.
   • 1649, Anthony Ascham, Of the Confusions and Revolutions of Governments‎^[1], Part 3, Chapter 4, p. 190:

     […] there is no reason that the innocents and nocents sufferings should be alike, for then punishments would not be so effectuall to terrifie others, nor to give future security to innocence.

   • 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals‎^[2], 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 32:

     […] no nocent is absolved by the verdict of himself.

Antonyms

• innocent

Related terms

• nocency
• nocence

Latin

Verb

nocent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of noceō