Search Result for "misdemeanor": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a crime less serious than a felony;
[syn: misdemeanor, misdemeanour, infraction, violation, infringement]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

misdemeanor n 1: a crime less serious than a felony [syn: misdemeanor, misdemeanour, infraction, violation, infringement]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

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.
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

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