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Misdemeanor   Listen
noun
Misdemeanor  n.  
1.
Ill behavior; evil conduct; fault.
2.
(Law) A crime less than a felony. 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. 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.
Synonyms: Misdeed; misconduct; misbehavior; fault; trespass; transgression.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Misdemeanor" Quotes from Famous Books



... a cause of war. Only one case passed under my personal notice but instances of olden days were related to me. There is no doubt in my mind as to the result of a serious sexual misdemeanor; it is death by the lance or the bolo for the offender without much parleying, if one may give credence to the universal outspoken Manbo opinion ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... palpable lies; the seller in favor of his goods, and the buyer in favor of his Egyptian piasters. In one place a crowd collects around somebody or other lying on the ground without his head on, on account of some misdemeanor; a little farther on, thirty or forty soldiers are engaged in driving, with repeated strokes of heavy mallets, sharp pointed pieces of timber, six or eight inches square, up the posteriors of some luckless insurgents who had had the audacity to endeavor to defend their ...
— A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar • George Bethune English

... mother and perhaps in an instinctive way had resented it, though her actual indictment against Wallace in those days had always been that he made her naughty; incited her by his perpetual assumption that she was the angelic little creature she looked, to one desperate misdemeanor after another, for which her father usually punished her. Mary had, superficially anyhow, her mother's looks along with her ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster

... and charity, teaching the Indians besides religion, useful trades, civilizing them, and taking such conscientious care of them that they made a nightly round of their quarters, not with whip in hand to punish imaginary misdemeanor, but to see that the spiritual and temporal welfare of their converts and neophytes, was guarded, and so great was the attachment of the Indians to the fathers that if a father was called on business from one mission to another, the Indians would follow him a long distance ...
— Chimes of Mission Bells • Maria Antonia Field

... and answered in a tone of desperation, "I've tried to. Mr. Allen said I must. But I can't. I don't care any thing about him." And she looked at the Parson with the air of a culprit who has confessed a terrible misdemeanor. ...
— Mercy Philbrick's Choice • Helen Hunt Jackson

... Cherokees. Could the question of property have been tried, the act of stopping their own wood, by the Indians, could not have been made even trespass, much less riot. It is said that Apes and the rest were indicted under some obsolete law, making it a misdemeanor to conspire against the laws. We have looked for such an act, but cannot find it in ...
— Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts - Relative to the Marshpee Tribe: or, The Pretended Riot Explained • William Apes

... observe that two legislatures—those of New Hampshire and New York—have passed laws to prevent this dirty misdemeanor. It is greatly to their credit, and it is in good season. For it is matter of wonder that some more colossal vulgarian has not stuck up a sign a mile long on the Palisades. But it is matter of thankfulness too. At the White Mountains, many grand and beautiful views have been spoiled by these ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum

... he had paid a visit to the priest of the village who thought his conduct odd, and he had previously stayed with an uncle, a bishop, in whose house he had broken furniture, torn up letters, and had even had sentence passed upon him by a police court for misdemeanor. During these three weeks he had spent the equivalent of $100, but he could not recall a single item of expenditure. Davies cites a remarkable case of sudden loss of memory in a man who, while on his way to Australia, was ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... the ground that some insolent Prussian lieutenant says that German armies will occupy Paris within five years, we have an example of animism which in a society farther removed from savagery than ours might be deemed a high crime and misdemeanor. Chemists and physicians have given up talking of spirits, but in discussing social and economic questions we are still victimized by the primitive animistic ...
— The Mind in the Making - The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform • James Harvey Robinson

... each of nine regions, first court of appeals for sectoral court decisions, hear all felony cases and civil cases valued at over $1,000; Sectoral Courts, supposed to be 24 of them, judges are not necessarily trained lawyers, hear civil cases under $1,000 and misdemeanor criminal cases ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... they govern, but which they can only neglect on their own responsibility. The law of the state obliges them, for instance, to draw up the list of electors in the townships; and if they omit this part of their functions, they are guilty of a misdemeanor. In all the affairs, however, which are determined by the town-meeting, the selectmen are the organs of the popular mandate, as in France the maire executes the decree of the municipal council. They usually act upon their own responsibility, and merely put in practice principles which ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... down, etc. Mr. Otis conducted the defense, showing that the arrested persons taking part in a noisy anniversary, and committing acts that were innocent in spirit, if not innocent per se, ought not to be adjudged guilty of serious misdemeanor. This plea prevailed and ...
— James Otis The Pre-Revolutionist • John Clark Ridpath

... answered Kitty. "Thank you all the same, Fred. There are some chocolates in my room if you like to steal up in the middle of the day in case I am locked up, as twenty to one I shall be for this misdemeanor. There are some chocolates and some rock and toffee. You'll find them in my left-hand drawer in the corner. I spent a whole sovereign on sweets, as I told you a few ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade

... I did forget that the poor miller's child had no right to obtrude her comeliness in the presence of the banker's daughter. I confess my 'high crime and misdemeanor' against the pet of fortune, and await my condign punishment. Is it your sovereign will that I shear my shining locks like royal Berenice, and offer them in propitiation? Or, does it seem 'good, meet, ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson

... said, that the whole town of Boston is distressed for a misdemeanor of a few, we wonder at their shamelessness; for we know that the town of Boston and all the associated provinces, are now in rebellion to defend or justify ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson

... found deliberately breaking any of the rules and by-laws shall be expelled from the organization, after a meeting held to investigate the misdemeanor." ...
— The Blue Birds' Winter Nest • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... prevention of conception or producing of abortion shall be carried in the mail, and any person who shall knowingly deposit or cause to be deposited for mailing or delivery any of the hereinbefore mentioned things shall be guilty of misdemeanor," etc. In New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and District of Columbia we find no local law against abortion. Nine states, viz.: New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Indiana, Wisconsin, Dakotas, Wyoming and California punish the woman upon whom the abortion is attempted; while ...
— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... versed in criminal law, was on the staff of Colonel Sibley, and was by him appointed recorder of the court. Mr. Heard, in the performance of his duty, was above prejudice or passion, and could treat a case of this nature as if it was a mere misdemeanor. Lieutenant Olin was judge advocate of this court, but as the trials progressed the evidence was all put in and the records kept by Mr. Heard. Some changes were made in the personnel of the court from time to time as the officers were needed elsewhere, but none of the changes lessened the dignity ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau

... persons likely to become public charge; (7) professional beggars; (8) persons afflicted with a loathsome or contagious disease; (9) persons who have been convicted of a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, not including those convicted of purely political offences; (10) polygamists; (11) anarchists (or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States ...
— Aliens or Americans? • Howard B. Grose

... might compass their destruction. But he first banished and later actually put to death Apollodorus the architect, who had planned the various creations of Trajan in Rome,—the forum, the odeum, and the gymnasium. The excuse given was that he had been guilty of some misdemeanor, but the true reason was that, when Trajan was consulting him on some point about the works, he had said to Hadrian, who broke in with some remark: "Be off and draw gourds. You don't understand any of these matters." It happened that Hadrian at the time was pluming himself ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio



Words linked to "Misdemeanor" :   false pretense, lying under oath, disturbance of the peace, disorderly conduct, false pretence, breach of the peace, disorderly behavior, offence, criminal offence, infraction, misdemeanour, law-breaking, infringement, sedition, offense, criminal offense, crime, violation, bearing false witness, perjury



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