misreturn

misreturn noun: the return of a process or other document that was done improperly.

Noun

misreturn (plural misreturns)

The return of a process or other document that was done improperly.
- The certiorari for bringing the trial into the superior court of criminal jurisprudence, it was contended had not been directed to the person who had the prisoner in custody – it was also argued, that there had been a misreturn, and a discontinuance of the prosecution, which rendered the procedure...1788, Walker's Hibernian Magazine, page 109
- If a venire is awarded to the coroners, and returned by two of them only, whereas at the time of the award and return thereof there were two more, this is only a misreturn, and aided.1807, Matthew Bacon, Sir Henry Gwillim ·, New Abridgment of the Law - Volume 3, page 774

misreturn (third-person singular simple present misreturns, present participle misreturning, simple past and past participle misreturned)

To return improperly.
- So it seems that any other error in the process against jurors, will occasion a mistrial as much as those which are termed discontinuances; ( a ) as where an improper process ( b ) is awarded, where it is directed to a wrong officer, ( c ) has a wrong ( d ) venire, misrecites former ( e ) process...1824, Thomas Starkie, A Treatise on Criminal Pleading, page 328
- In each case inquiry of the strictest kind was set on foot, and where possible, the individual whose religion had been alleged to have been misreturned was interrogated by the enumerators upon the part of the Commissioners.1876, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers - Volume 81, page 108

We can not, therefore, avoid the conclusion that a return was made of the service of the writ, and from this it results that this was an insufficient or misreturn, which is amendable.1881, The American Decisions, Containing All the Cases of General Value and Authority Decided in the Courts of the Several States:
Since such identification had not occurred, the judgment was stayed at the defendant's request, and a misreturn declared.1994, Marianne Constable, The Law of the Other, page 139:
Thousands of papers had been misfiled or misreturned to the files during the past several years and hundreds are missing.1944, Idaho. Secretary of State, Biennial Report of the Secretary of State for the State of Idaho, page 8:

Noun
plural	misreturns
Verb
third-person singular present	misreturns
present participle	misreturning
past participle	misreturned
past	misreturned

From mis- + return.

What does misreturn mean?: Misreturn means the return of a process or other document that was done improperly.
How do you use misreturn in a sentence?: We can not, therefore, avoid the conclusion that a return was made of the service of the writ, and from this it results that this was an insufficient or misreturn, which is amendable.
What part of speech is misreturn?: Misreturn can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of misreturn?: The plural of misreturn is misreturns.

Adapted from Wiktionary: misreturn (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

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