Fisher, who had been found guilty of misprision of treason, had so far been left unpunished.
“You were guilty of misprision of treason in not revealing it,” remarked the Earl.
A sensibility to injury, to fear, to harm, to misprision—a quick jealousy—suspicion—soreness!
Fisher, the guiltiest of all, was sent to the Tower for misprision.
The chief justice ruled that this did not amount to treason, but was at most misprision of treason.
These pert, bird-like ways formed her shield against ridicule and misprision.
If they were true, it was misprision of treason in him to have concealed the matter for a twelvemonth.
Whether the crime to be punished is to amount to treason, misprision of treason, or be only a misdemeanor, is left uncertain.
I overlook the misprision of blasphemy on your part, for you didn't know what you said?
Next, Godfrey could not reveal the secret without revealing his own misprision of treason.
"wrong action, a failure on the part of authority," early 15c., from Anglo-French mesprisioun "mistake, error, wrong action or speech," from Old French mesprision "mistake, wrongdoing, fault, blame, crime," from mespris, past participle of mesprendre "to mistake, act wrongly, trespass, transgress, break a law," from mes- "wrongly" (see mis- (2)) + prendre "take," from Latin prendere, contracted from prehendere "seize" (see prehensile).
In 16c., misprision of treason was used for lesser degrees of guilt (those not subject to capital punishment), especially for knowing of treasonable actions or plots but not informing the authorities. This led to the common supposition in legal writers that the word means "failure to denounce" a crime.
