blameworthy

blameworthy, guilty, culpable are comparable when they mean deserving reproach and punishment for a wrong, sinful, or criminal act, practice, or condition. One (as a person or his act or work) is blameworthy that deserves blame or criticism and must suffer or receive reproach, censure, or even more severe punishment

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thee therefore still, blameworthy as thou art . . . thee I account still happy, and the chief among the nations, seeing thou art free— Cowper

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A person is guilty who is justly chargeable with responsibility for a delinquency, crime, or sin, either in his own knowledge or in that of others, by his confession or by proof (often legal proof) of his responsibility; the term may stress either the fact that guilt has been proved or the fact or the fear of resulting punishment

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the defendant was found guilty

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suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; the thief doth fear each bush an officer— Shak.

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let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided— Grant

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Often the term suggests merely a state of mind (as a consciousness that one has committed a sin or a crime or a fear that one is justly suspected of wrongdoing or of a misdeed)

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a guilty conscience

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there is no use in making the refractory child feel guilty— Russell

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A person is culpable who has been shown to be blameworthy and open to severe censure or condemnation

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the judge . . . remarked that those whom Smith had gulled were almost as culpable as he— Altick

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The term is also applicable to a blameworthy act, condition, or practice for which one is responsible or which leads to wrong or harm

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culpable ignorance

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culpable neglect

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is it not . . . culpable and unworthy, thus beforehand to slur her honor?— Shelley

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Antonyms: blameless

Contrasted words: faultless, *impeccable, flawless