Misreturn

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    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 on it by the Judges illegal."

Verb
  1. 1
    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, is misreturned or not returned ( f ) at all."

Example

More examples

"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 on it by the Judges illegal."

Etymology

From mis- + return.

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