guilt

See Also: CONSCIENCE

1. Branded with his guilt as if he were tattooed —Henry Slesar
2. Berating himself, like an orator grading his own speech —William Diehl
3. Gather guilt like a young intern his symptoms, his certain evidence —Anne Sexton
4. Guilt is like mothers. Everyone in the world has at least one. And it’s passed down like a torch to the next generation —Erma Bombeck This has been changed to the present tense from the original, which read: “I figured out long ago that guilt was like mothers. Everyone in the world had at least one. And it was passed down like a torch to the next generation.”
5. Guilt, thick as ether, seeped into my body —Jonathan Valin
6. Guilt will descend on you like London fog —Walter Allen
7. The heat of shame mounted through her legs and body and sounded in her ears like the sound of sand pouring —Nadine Gordimer
8. Looked as guilty as if he’d kicked his grandmother —Raymond Chandler
9. Looking behind me … as guilty as a murderer whose knife drips blood —Ann Beattie
10. Looks like a hound caught slipping a chop from the table —T. Coraghessan Boyle
11. A sense of guilt like a scent —Louis MacNeice
12. Shame crowding his throat like vomit —Jean Thompson
13. The thought of the wrong she had done … aroused in her a feeling akin to revulsion such as a drowning man might feel who had shaken off another man who clung to him in the water —Leo Tolstoy
14. We are all like mice: one eats the cheese and all are blamed —Solomon Ibn Vega

caught with one’s hand in the cookie jar Taken by surprise in the process of wrongdoing; caught red-handed. This expression implies that the person caught is not only surprised, but is also in possession of self-incriminating material. Though the image is that of a mischievous child atop a counter engaged in normal childhood activities, in context the phrase is often used for serious adult wrongdoing, particularly political graft.

caught with one’s pants down See VULNERABILITY.

cry peccavi To confess one’s guilt; to openly acknowledge one’s fault or wrongdoing. The origin of this expression is the Latin peccavi I have sinned.’ Both peccavi ‘an acknowledgement of guilt’ and cry peccavi date from the 16th century.

dead to rights See CERTAINTY.

red-handed In the act, with clear evidence of guilt, in flagrante delicto. This term evolved from the earlier with red hand and with bloody hand.

tarred with the same brush See SIMILARITY.

with bloody hand Guilty; caught red-handed or in flagrante delicto. According to the Forest Law of ancient Britain, a man found with bloody hand was presumed guilty of having killed the king’s deer.

with egg on one’s face See HUMILIATION.