Meaning of Idiom ‘Above Suspicion’
To be above suspicion means to be so trustworthy as to never be suspected of wrongdoing; not believed to have done anything wrong; too respected to be thought to be guilty of anything wrong; certainly innocent. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,3Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.
See also above the law.
Usage Notes
This idiom is often used in negative phrases such as ‘no one, in this case, is above suspicion.’
Sentence Examples
“Surely, the princess herself is above suspicion.”
“Nobody in this room is above suspicion, said the detective.”
“Just because you are a celebrity doesn’t mean you are above suspicion.”
“Not even the police chief himself is above suspicion in this scandal.”
“You’d think the town mayor would be above suspicion.”
Origin
Used since at least the mid-1800s.
The word above is used in the sense of ‘beyond.’ This idiom was seen in print 1850 in Charles Merivale’s A History of the Romans under the Empire:
“The wife of Caesar must be above suspicion.”
It was further popularized in 1943 when it was used as the title of a popular World War II spy film starring Joan Crawford.
