Misdemeanor

1.

Misconduct; misbehavior, not amounting to a crime, in discharging the duties of a public office. As, in a statute enacting that whenever a sheriff shall have been guilty of any default or misdemeanor in office, the party aggrieved may apply to a court for leave to prosecute his official bond.* Compare Misconduct.

3.

Any indictable offense under the grade of felony.3 Vrhere a municipal ordinance prohibits an act not punishable at common law or by statute, and provides, as a penalty, a fine, and, in default of payment thereof, imprisonment in the county jail, the violation of such ordinance is not a misdemeanor under a statute defining a misdemeanor to be " an act or omission punishable by fine and imprisonment or by fine or imprisonment." * The prgvision in the Constitution that " the trial of all crioies, except in cases of impeachment, shall be hy jury," construed in the light of theprinciples of the common law, embraces not only felonies punishable by confinement in the penitentiary, but also some classes of misdemeanors the punishment of whichjnay involve deprivation of liberty. The word "crime," in its more extended sense, comprehends every violation of public law; in a limited sense, it embraces offenses of a serious or atrocious character.* Misdemeanant. A person convicted of 'a misdemeauor. (Rare.) See further Crime; IF'elony.