INDISCRETION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does indiscretion mean? 

• INDISCRETION (noun)
  The noun INDISCRETION has 2 senses:

1. the trait of being injudicious

2. a petty misdeed

  Familiarity information: INDISCRETION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INDISCRETION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trait of being injudicious

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

indiscretion; injudiciousness

Hypernyms ("indiscretion" is a kind of...):

folly; foolishness; unwiseness (the trait of acting stupidly or rashly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A petty misdeed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

indiscretion; peccadillo

Hypernyms ("indiscretion" is a kind of...):

misbehavior; misbehaviour; misdeed (improper or wicked or immoral behavior)

 Context examples 

But no indiscretion, and, above all, no violence.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Your Majesty has indeed committed an indiscretion.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At least this is my first indiscretion.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“They are des petites cadeaux,” said he, “but it would be an indiscretion for me to say more.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet there must have been some marked display of attentions to her cousin, there must have been some strong indiscretion, since her correspondent was not of a sort to regard a slight one.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Every thing declared it; his own attentions, his father's hints, his mother-in-law's guarded silence; it was all in unison; words, conduct, discretion, and indiscretion, told the same story.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Several times during the last three years I have taken up my pen to write to you, but always I feared lest your affectionate regard for me should tempt you to some indiscretion which would betray my secret.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of this offence Buck was unwittingly guilty, and the first knowledge he had of his indiscretion was when Sol-leks whirled upon him and slashed his shoulder to the bone for three inches up and down.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

What if a former caprice (a freak very possible to a nature so sudden and headstrong as his) has delivered him into her power, and she now exercises over his actions a secret influence, the result of his own indiscretion, which he cannot shake off, and dare not disregard?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I have shown three, but it was an indiscretion.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)