Word.ws English Dictionary

misprisions

misprisions is the plural of misprision.

Meaning of misprision

Noun (1)

misprision (countable and uncountable, plural misprisions)

  1. (historical, uncountable) Criminal neglect or wrongful execution of duty, especially by a public official; (countable) a specific instance of this.
    • [I]f any persone were perceiued to be absent, or were sene to laughe at the folye of the emperour [Nero], he was forthe with accused, as it were, of missprision: whereby the emperour founde occasion to committe him to prison or to put hym to tortures.1531, Thomas Elyot, “In what Wise Musike may be to a Noble Man Necessarie: And what Modestie ought to be therin”, in The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC
  2. (historical, uncountable) In full misprision of felony or misprision of treason: originally, a less serious form of felony or treason; later, the crime of (intentionally) failing to give information about a felony or treason that one knows about; (countable) an instance of this.
    • misprision of heresy
  3. (broadly, uncountable) Misinterpretation or misunderstanding; (countable) an instance of this; a mistake.
    • A Feuer in your blood vvhy then inciſion
      VVould let her out in Savvcers, ſvveete miſpriſon.^([sic])c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...
  4. (broadly, uncountable) Incorrect or unfair suspicion; (countable) an instance of this.

Noun (2)

misprision (uncountable)

  1. Despising or holding in contempt; disdain, scorn.
    • Heere, take her hand, / Proud ſcornful boy, vnworthie this good gift, / That doſt in vile miſpriſion ſhackle vp / My loue, and her deſert: […]c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    misprisal, misprizement, misprizing
  2. Not seeing the value in something; undervaluing.
    Synonyms:
    misprizing

Questions about misprisions

What is misprisions the plural of?
Misprisions is the plural of misprision.

Words near misprisions in the dictionary

  1. misprise
  2. misprised
  3. misprises
  4. misprising
  5. misprision
  6. misprisions
  7. misprison
  8. misprisons
  9. misprizal
  10. misprize
  11. misprized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: misprisions (page history and authors); misprision (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “misprisions.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/misprisions. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.