misprison

misprison is the misconstruction of misprision.

Meaning of misprision

misprision (countable and uncountable, plural misprisions)

(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
(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
(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...
(broadly, uncountable) Incorrect or unfair suspicion; (countable) an instance of this.

misprision (uncountable)

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
Not seeing the value in something; undervaluing.

Synonyms:

misprizing

plural	misprisons

What is misprison the misconstruction of?: Misprison is the misconstruction of misprision.

Adapted from Wiktionary: misprison (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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