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Misdemeanor - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Misdemeanor : \Mis`de*mean"or\, n.
1. Ill behavior; evil conduct; fault. --Shak.
2. (Law) A crime less than a felony. --Wharton.
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.
Syn: Misdeed; misconduct; misbehavior; fault; trespass;
transgression.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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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.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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