noun
or lèse ma·jes·té ˈlēzˈmajə̇stē, -ti
( plural lese majesties or lèse majestés )
Etymology: lese majesty part translation of Middle French lese majesté, leze majesté, from Latin laesa majestas, literally, injured majesty; lése majestè from French, from Middle French
1.
a.
(1) : a crime (as high treason) committed against a sovereign power
people convicted of lèse majesté — Hartford (Conn.) Courant
(2) : an offense violating the dignity of a ruler as the representative of a sovereign power
so did lèse majesté against Stalin surpass all other crimes — Georg Mann
b. : a detraction from the dignity or importance of a constituted authority
lèse majesté toward the Church — New Yorker
time has so mellowed Strachey's lèse majesté that his biography has been accepted … as a human portrait of the great Queen — Time
to belittle the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank has always been almost lèse majesté here — Christopher Rand
2. : an affront to position or authority : indignity , outrage
some varlet put a parking ticket on the … car, which is lèse majesté, and the whole town had to prostrate itself — Claudia Cassidy
any criticism of it is … lese majesty — Hunter Mead