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1. a. Law. A wrongful act or omission; spec. a misdemeanour or failure of duty by a public official. Now rare exc. in sense 1b.

1425 Rolls of Parl. IV. 306/2 Suche misprisions and defautes of ye said Sherefs. 1442 Rolls of Parl. V. 60/1 How..awners of divers Shippes, that have, be commaundement of the Kynges Counseill, sent their Shippes to the See, and they nought sette in their Shippes Maisters ne Maryners, for their mesprision on the See were putte in grete trouble. 1450 J. PASTON in Paston Lett. (1971) I. 56 To enquere, here, and determyn all trespaces,..and mesprisions by hem or ony of hem doen. 1491 Act 7 Hen. VII c. 22 §1 Mesprision by hym commytted and doon ayenst the Kynges moost royal persone. a1500 tr. A. Chartier Traité de l'Esperance (Rawl.) 54 Neuirthelesse..ye make therof a violent bruyte and mesprision to Almighty God, redy to breke the lawe for delyte of pryve raveyne, to the grette trouble of subiectis. 1531 T. ELYOT Bk. named Gouernour I. vii. sig. Cvii, If any persone..were sene to laughe at the folye of the emperour, he was forthe with accused as it were of missprision.

b. Law (now hist. in some jurisdictions). In full misprision of treason, misprision of felony. Originally: an offence similar to but less serious than treason or felony. Now usually: the crime of (deliberately) concealing one's knowledge of a treasonable act or of a felony.

1533-4 Act 25 Hen. VIII c. 22 §9 Yf any person..being commaunded..to take the seid othe..obstynatly refuse that to doo..that every suche refusall shalbe..adjudged mesprysion of high treason. 1551-2 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 11 Provided also..that concealment or kepinge secrete of any Highe Treason be deemed and taken only mysprision of Treason. 1572 Act 14 Eliz. c. 3 That yf any person or persons hereafter..counterfayte any suche kind of Coygne..as is not the proper Coigne of this Realme... That then everye suche Offence shalbee deemed and adjudged mysprision of Highe Treason. 1579 Expos. Termes of Law (at cited word), Misprision of felonie or trespasse.

b. More generally: the mistaking of one thing for another; a misunderstanding; a mistake.

1594 H. PLATT Jewell-house III. 17 By the misprision of the Brewer of English hoppes for Flemish hoppes. 1598 SHAKESPEARE Loves Labours Lost IV. iii. 96 A Feuer in your blood, why then incision Would let her out in Sawcers, sweete misprison [1623 misprision]. 1600 SHAKESPEARE Midsummer Night's Dream III. ii. 90 Of thy misprision, must perforce ensue Some true loue turnd.

d. Literary Criticism. Harold Bloom's term for: (an) unconscious misreading or misinterpretation of a text.

1973 H. BLOOM Anxiety of Influence i. 14 Clinamen..is poetic misreading or misprision proper. 1981 N.Y. Times 27 Dec. VII. 5/3 Sartre here develops a theory of generational ‘misprision’ (or misreading), drawing on the concept of the ‘practico-inert’. 1988 Classical Rev. 38 244 This last misprision mars what is otherwise a very exciting interpretation of the second half of the Fourth Georgic.