Misdemeanor definition

Misdemeanor





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5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Misdemeanor \Mis`de*mean"or\, n.
     1. Ill behavior; evil conduct; fault. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Law) A crime less than a felony. --Wharton.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     Note: As a rule, in the old English law, offenses capitally
           punishable were felonies; all other indictable offenses
           were misdemeanors. In common usage, the word crime is
           employed to denote the offenses of a deeper and more
           atrocious dye, while small faults and omissions of less
           consequence are comprised under the gentler name of
           misdemeanors. --Blackstone.
           The distinction, however, between felonies and
           misdemeanors is purely arbitrary, and is in most
           jurisdictions either abrogated or so far reduced as to
           be without practical value. Cf. {Felony}. --Wharton.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Misdeed; misconduct; misbehavior; fault; trespass;
          transgression.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  misdemeanor
       n : a crime less serious than a felony [syn: {misdemeanour}, {infraction},
            {offence}, {offense}, {violation}, {infringement}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  88 Moby Thesaurus words for "misdemeanor":
     atrocity, badness, breach, crime, crime against humanity,
     criminal tendency, criminality, criminosis, deadly sin, delict,
     delinquency, dereliction, discourtesy, disorder, disorderliness,
     disorderly conduct, disruption, disruptiveness, enormity, error,
     evil, evil courses, evildoing, failure, fault, feloniousness,
     felony, frowned-upon behavior, genocide, guilty act, heavy sin,
     hooliganism, horseplay, illegality, impropriety, indiscretion,
     inexpiable sin, iniquity, injury, injustice, lapse, lawbreaking,
     malefaction, malfeasance, malpractice, malum, malversation,
     minor wrong, misbehavior, misconduct, misdeed, misdoing,
     misfeasance, misprision, misprision of treason, mortal sin,
     naughtiness, nonfeasance, nonsanctioned behavior, offense,
     omission, outrage, peccadillo, peccancy, positive misprision,
     roughhouse, rowdiness, rowdyism, ruffianism, sin,
     sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act, slip,
     thou scarlet sin, tort, transgression, trespass, trip,
     unutterable sin, vandalism, venial sin, vice, viciousness,
     violation, wrong, wrong conduct, wrongdoing
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  MISDEMEANOR, crim. law. This term is used to express every offence inferior 
  to felony, punishable by indictment, or by particular prescribed 
  proceedings; in its usual acceptation, it is applied to all those crimes and 
  offences for which the law has not provided a particular name; this word is 
  generally used in contradistinction to felony; misdemeanors comprehending 
  all indictable offences, which do not amount to felony, as perjury, battery, 
  libels, conspiracies and public nuisances. 
       2. Misdemeanors have sometimes been called misprisions. (q.v.) Burn's 
  Just. tit. Misdemeanor; 4 Bl. Com. 5, n. 2; 2 Bar. & Adolph. 75: 1 Russell, 
  43; 1 Chitty, Pr. 14; 3 Vern. 347; 2 Hill, S. C. 674; Addis. 21; 3 Pick. 26; 
  1 Greenl. 226; 2 P. A. Browne, 249; 9 Pick. 1; 1 S. & R. 342; 6 Call. 245; 4 
  Wend. 229; 2 Stew. & Port. 379. And see 4 Wend. 229, 265; 12 Pick. 496; 3 
  Mass. 254; 5 Mass. 106. See Offence. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  MISDEMEANOR, n.  An infraction of the law having less dignity than a
  felony and constituting no claim to admittance into the best criminal
  society.
  
      By misdemeanors he essays to climb
      Into the aristocracy of crime.
      O, woe was him! -- with manner chill and grand
      "Captains of industry" refused his hand,
      "Kings of finance" denied him recognition
      And "railway magnates" jeered his low condition.
      He robbed a bank to make himself respected.
      They still rebuffed him, for he was detected.
                                                            S.V. Hanipur
  
  

















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