From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishinnocentin‧no‧cent1 /ˈɪnəsənt/ ●●○ W3 adjective 1 SCCSCLnot guilty of a crime OPP guilty Nobody would believe that I was innocent.innocent of He’s innocent of murder. The court found him innocent and he was released.2 → innocent victims/bystanders/people etc3 HARM/BE BAD FORdone or said without intending to harm or offend anyone He was startled by their angry reaction to his innocent remark.4 EXPERIENCEDnot having much experience of the bad things in the world, so that you are easily deceived SYN naive I was thirteen years old and very innocent. —innocently adverb
Examples from the Corpus
innocent• Dickinson sailed down in slow, sweeping curves, feeling strangely innocent.• Perhaps it was by pure chance that the other woman had been there, and Matthew was entirely innocent.• Nobody believes that she's innocent.• And could they be innocent?• Police Officer Jack Wronski said two of the victims were known gang members; the other was an innocent bystander.• "I didn't kill him - I'm innocent!" Davies shouted.• Don't get her mixed up in your plan - she's just an innocent girl.• Bates allowed an innocent man to go to jail for his crime.• I'm sorry. It was just an innocent mistake.• Jett maintains that he is completely innocent of the charges against him.• Masterfully, in that moment, Pennington shades Peter's love innocent rather than tawdry.• He's so innocent that anyone can take advantage of him.• Observations of the most innocent type.• Under criminal law people are presumed innocent until proved guilty.• Harry Belafonte was Joe, an innocent young soldier.found ... innocent• He then announced that the courts had found me innocent and therefore I would shortly be released.• Some of these unfortunate prisoners were later found innocent at the Forest Eyre.• Once again he was found to be innocent, but he was still kept under arrest.• Dave Bassett has been found innocent of allegations of obscene behaviour at Chelsea last month.• Male speaker Mr Barker found himself an innocent victim and he was questioned and released.innocentinnocent2 noun [countable] EXPERIENCEDsomeone who does not have much experience of the bad things in lifeExamples from the Corpus
innocent• She is a girl of about 12, and she faces the camera with the calm composure of an innocent.• He's such an innocent; anyone can take advantage of him.• Both John and Donner, in different ways, are innocents, Donner surprisingly and dangerously so.• These guys are holy innocents, in love with their worlds and their words.• Moral patients are, for the most part, innocents.• Unfortunately the innocents get hurt, never the criminals behind the scenes.Origin innocent1 (1300-1400) French Latin, from nocens “evil”, present participle of nocere “to harm” 