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nonfeasance

[non-fee-zuh ns]
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noun Law.
  1. the omission of some act that ought to have been performed.Compare malfeasance, misfeasance(def 2).
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Origin of nonfeasance

1590–1600; non- + obsolete feasance; see malfeasance
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for nonfeasance

Historical Examples

  • More important was the nonfeasance of the Inquisition with respect to simony.

    A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume III

    Henry Charles Lea

  • It was settled that assumpsit would lie for a mere omission or nonfeasance.

    The Common Law

    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

British Dictionary definitions for nonfeasance

nonfeasance

noun
  1. law a failure to act when under an obligation to do soCompare malfeasance, misfeasance
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Word Origin

C16: from non- + feasance (obsolete) performing or doing, from French faisance, from faire to do, from Latin facere
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for nonfeasance

n.

also non-feasance, "failure to do what should be done," 1590s, from non- + feasance.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper