​GUILT, a lapse from duty, a crime, now usually the fact of wilful wrong-doing, the condition of being guilty of a crime, hence conduct deserving of punishment. The O. Eng. form of the word is gylt. The New English Dictionary rejects for phonetic reasons the usually accepted connexion with the Teutonic root gald-, to pay, seen in Ger. gelten, to be of value, Geld, money, payment, English “yield.”