malfeasance

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Twenty years after Oliver Stone's movie came out, our culture remains drenched in meaningless materialism, and corporate malfeasance is at Gilded Age levels.

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Definitions (4)

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  1. noun Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official.

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Examples (50)

  • The frustration of justice during the long legal fight for the reclamation of the Sound and punishment for the many violations of the law and abrogation of responsibility on Exxon's part inspired Ott to seek another avenue of redress for corporate malfeasance, the introduction of the 28th Amendment, the separation of corporation and state. —  Pacific Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times - Progressive opinion, dissident news
  • How else would we have learned about Enron and other stories of corporate malfeasance, the torture at Abu Ghraib or the tobacco industry's longtime hidden awareness that smoking caused cancer? —  Latest News
  • That is a standard most of us would like to see applied to Congress, which enjoys annual pay increases no matter how much incompetence, malfeasance, and misfeasance it demonstrates. —  WORLDMag.com
  • Conservatives looking to make a point about government incompetence and malfeasance -- their only point -- need look no further than here. —  The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
  • Add in collection costs and the usual political malfeasance, and we have a net loss to the economy. —  Libertarian Blog Place
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Anglo-Norman malfaisance, from Old French malfaisant, malfeasant, present participle of malfaire, to do evil, from Latin malefacere; see malefactor.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also malefeasance; from French malfaisance, evil-doing, wrong-doing, from malfaisant, doing evil, wishing evil, from mal, evil, + faisant, present participle of faire, from Latinfacere, do. Cf. maleficence.
 

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/mælˈfizəns/
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