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n. 1. Neglect in performing the duties of public office. 2. Law The criminal offense of concealing, or neglecting to report or prevent, a felony or act of treason one had knowledge of but did not participate in: misprision of a felony; misprision of treason. 3. Seditious conduct. 4. a. Misunderstanding or misinterpretation: "to show that everything once viewed as truth and light is no more than shadow and misprision" (Edward Rothstein). b. A misreading or misinterpretation of a text, especially as a means of distinguishing oneself from a literary predecessor. [Middle English, illegal act on the part of a public official, from Anglo-Norman, mistake, misdeed, variant of Old French mesprison, from mespris, past participle of mesprendre, to make a mistake : mes-, wrongly; see MIS-1 + prendre, to take, seize (from Latin prehendere, prēndere; see ghend- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
n. Contempt; disdain. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
