noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An actual or alleged wrong that arises from an action; often, the wrongful use of legal authority. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   doing a proper act in a wrongful or injurious manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

aberrancyaberrationabuseabuse of officeatrocitybad policy

Etymology

From Middle French mesfaisance.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.