As by flattery a man is usually brought to open his bosom to his mortal enemy, so by detraction, and a slanderous misreport of persons, he is often brought to shut the same even to his best and truest friends. South's Sermons. To MISREPRESENT. v. a. [mis and represent.] To represent not as it is; to falsify to disadvantage: mis often signifies not only error, but malice or mischief. Two qualities necessary to a reader before his judgment should be allowed, are common honesty and common sense; and that no man could have misrepresented that paragraph unless he were utterly destitute of one or both. Swift. While it is so difficult to learn the springs of some facts, and so easy to forget the circumstances of others, it is no wonder they should be so grosly misrepresented to the publick by curious and inquisitive heads, who proceed alSwift. together upon conjectures. MISREPRESENTATION. n.s. [from misrepresent.] 1. The act of misrepresenting. They have prevailed by misrepresentations, and other artifices, to make the successor look upon them as the only persons he can trust. 2. Account maliciously false. Swift. Since I have shown him his foul mistakes and injurious misrepresentations, it will become him publickly to own and retract them. Atterbury. MISRULE. n. s. [mis and rule.] Tumult; confusion; revel; unjust domination. In the portal plac, the heav'n-born maid, Enormous riot, and misrule survey'd. Pope. And through his airy hall the loud misrule Of driving tempest, is for ever heard. Thomson. Miss. n.. [contracted from mistress.] Bailey. 1. The term of honour to a young girl. Where there are little masters and misses in a house, they are great impediments to the diversions of the servants. Savift. 1. A strumpet; a concubine; a whore; a prostitute. All women would be of one piece, The virtuous natron and the miss. Hudibras. This gentle cock for solace of his life, Six misses had besides his lawful wife. Dryden. To Miss. v. a. pret. missed; part, missed or mist. [missen, Dutch and German.] 1. Not to hit by the mind; to-mistake. To heav'n their prayers Flew up, nor miss'd the way. Milton. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn By this new-felt attraction, and instinct. Milt. 1. Not to hit by manual aim. The life you boasted to your jav'lin giv'n, Prince, you have miss’d. 3. To fail of obtaining. Pope. If she desired above all things to have Orgalus, Orgalus feared nothing but to miss ParSidney. thenia. So may I, blind fortune leading me, Miss that, which one unworthier may attain; And die with grieving. Shakspeare. Where shall a maid's distracted heart find rest, If she can miss it in her lover's breast? Dryd. When a man misses his great end, happiness, he will acknowledge he judged not right. Lucke. 4. To discover something to be unexpectedly wanting. Without him I found a weakness, and a mis The moral and relative perfections of the Deity are easy to be understood by us; upon the least reflection we cannot miss of them. Atterb. Miss. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. Loss; want. I could have better spar'd a better man. Oh, I should have a heavy miss of thee, If I were much in love with vanity. Shakspeare. K these papers have that evidence in them, there will be no great miss of those which are lost, and my reader may be satisfied without them. Locke. 2. Mistake; errour. He did without any great miss in the hardest points of grammar. Ascham's Schoolmaster. 3. Hurt; harm. Obsolete. In humble dales is footing fast, The trode is not so tickle, And though one fall through heedless haste, Yet is his misse not mickle. Spenser. MISSAL. n. s. [missale, Lat. missel, Fr.] The mass book. By the rubrick of the missal, in every solemn mass, the priest is to go up to the middle of the altar. Stilling fleet. To MISSA'Y. v. n. [mis and say.] 1. To speak ill of; to censure. Obsolete. 2. To say wrong. Spenser. Spenser. Diggon Davie, I bid her godday, To MISSE EM. v. n. [mis and seem.] Foul Duessa meet, Who with her witchcraft and misseeming sweet 1. To misbecome. Obsolete both. Great men who misserved their country, were fined very highly. Arbuthnot on Coins. To MISSHA PE. v. a. part. misshaped and misshapen. [mis and shape.] 1. To shape ill; to form ill; to deform. Ad horribly misshapes with ugly sights, Shakspeare. We ought not to believe that the banks of the ocean are really deformed, because they have not the form of a regular bulwark; nor that the mountains are misshapen, because they are not exact pyramids or cones. Bentley's Sermons. Some figures monstrous and misshap'd appear Pope. 2. In Shakspeare, perhaps it once signifes Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, 'Mr'sSION. n. s. [missio, Latin.] the state of being sent 1. Commission Her son tracing the desart wild, The divine authority of our mission, and the powers vested in us by the high-priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, are publickly disputed and denied. Atterbury. 2. Persons sent on any account, usually to propagate religion. In these ships there should be a mission of three of the brethren of Solomon's house, to give us knowledge of the sciences, manufactures, and inventions of all the world, and bring us books and patterns; and that the brethren should stay abroad till the new mission. Bacon, 3. Dismission; discharge. Not in use. In Cæsar's army, somewhat the soldiers would have had, yet only demanded a mission or discharge, though with no intention it should be granted, but thought to wrench him to their other desires; whereupon with one cry they asked mission. Baren In vain with darts a distant war they try, Short, and more short, the missive weapons fly Dryden. MISSIVE. n. s. [French.] 1. A letter sent: it is retained in Scotland in that sense. Great aids came in to him; partly upon mis sives, and partly voluntary from many parts. Baton 2. A messenger. Both obsolete. Dount To MISSPEAK. v.n. To blunder in speak. It is not so; thou hast mispoke, misheard; His light those mists and clouds dissely'd As a mist is a multitude of small but solid globules, which therefore descend; so a vapour, and therefore a watry cloud, is nothing else but congeries of very small and concave globules, which therefore ascend to that height, in which they are of equal weight with the air, where they remain suspended, till by some motion in the air, being broken, they descend in solid drops; either small, as in a mist, or bigger, when many of them run together, as in rain. Grew. But hov'ring mists around his brows are spread, And night with sable shades involves his head. Dryden. A cloud is nothing but a mist flying high in the air, as a mist is nothing but a cloud here below. Locke. 2. Any thing that dims or darkens. My people's eyes once blinded with such mists ef suspicion, they are misled into the most desperate actions. King Charles. His passion cast a mist before his sense, And either made or magnify'd th' offence. Dryden. To MIST. v. a. [from the noun.] To cloud; to cover with a vapour or steam. Lend me a looking-glass; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why then she lives. Shakspeare. MISTA EN. pret. and part. pass. of mistake, for mistaken, and so retained in Scotland. This dagger hath mista'en, for lo! the sheath Lies empty on the back of Mountague, The point missheathed in my daughter's bosom. Shakspeare. MISTA KEABLE. adj. [from mistake.] Liable to be conceived wrong. It is not strange to see the difference of a third in so large an account, if we consider part how differently they are set forth in minor and less mistakeable numbers. Brown. Fools into the notion fall, Pope. TO MISTAKE. V. n. To err; not to judge right. green. Seeing God found folly in his angels; men's judgments, which inhabit these houses of clay, cannot be without their mistakings. Raleigh. Seldom any one mistakes in his names of simple ideas, or applies the name red to the idea Locke. Servants mistake, and sometimes occasion misunderstanding among friends. Swift. [To mistake has a kind of reciprocal sense; I mistake, je me trompe. I am mistaken, means, I misconceive, I am in an errour; more fre To be MISTAKEN. To err. The extravagances of the lewdest life are the more consummate disorders of a mistaught or neglected youth. L'Estrange. To MISTE LL. v. a. [mis and tell.] To tell unfaithfully or inaccurately. To MISTE'MPER. v. a. [mis and temper.] To temper ill; to disorder. This inundation of mistemper'd humour MISTER. adj. [from mestier, trade, Fr.] Rest by you only to be qualified. Shakspeare. What mister, what kind of. Obsolete. The redcross knight toward him crossed fast, To weet what mister wight was so dismay'd, There him he finds all senseless and aghast. Spenser. To MISTE RM. v. a. [mis and term.] To term erroneously. Hence banished, is banished from the world; And world exil'd is death. That banished Is death misterm'd. Shakspeares To MISTHINK. v. a. [mis and think.] To think il; to think wrong. How will the country for these woful chances, Misthink the king, and not be satisfy'd. Shaksp. We, the greatest, are misthought For things that others do. Shakspeare. Thoughts; which how found they harbour in thy breast, Adam, Misthought of her to thee so dear! Milton. To MISTI ME. v. a. [mis and time.] Not to time right; not to adapt properly with regard to time. MI ́STINESS. n. s. [from misty.] Cloudiness; state of being overcast. The speedy depredation of air upon watry moisture, and version of the same into air, appeareth in the sudden vanishing of vapours from glass, or the blade of a sword, such as doth not at all detain or imbibe the incisture, for the mistiness scattereth immediately. Bacan. MI'STION. n. s. [from mistus, Lat.] The state of being mingled. In animals many actions are mixt, and depend upon their living form as well as that of mistion, and though they wholly seem to retain unto the body, depart upon disunion. Brown. Both bodies do, by the new texture resulting from their mistion, produce colour. Boyle. MISTLETO E. n. s. [mýrzeltin, Saxon; mistel, Danish, birdlime; and tan, a twig.] A plant. The flower of the mistletoe consists of one leaf, which is shaped like a bason, divided into four farts, and beset with warts; the ovary which is produced in the female flowers is placed in a remote part of the plant from the male flowers, and consists of four shorter leaves; this becomes a round berry fuil of a glutinous substance, inclosing a plain heart-shaped seed: this plant is always produced from seed, and is not to be cultivated in the earth, but will always grow upon trees; from whence the ancients accounted it a superplant, who thought it to be an excrescence on the tree without seed. The manner of its propagation is as follows: the mistletoe thrush, which feeds upon the berries of this plant in winter when it is ripe, doth open the seed from tree to tree; for the viscous part of the berry, which immediately surrounds the seed, doth sometimes fasten it to the outward part of the bird's beak, which, to get disengaged of, he strikes his beak at the branches of a neighbouring tree, and so leaves the seed sticking by this viscous matter to the bark, which, if it lights upon a smooth part of the tree, will fasten itself, and the following winter put out and grow: the trees which this plant doth most readily take upon are the apple, the ash, and some other smooth rind trees: whenever a branch of an oak tree hath any of these plants growing upon it, it is cut off, and preserved by the curious in their collections of natural curiosities. Miller. If snowe do continue, sheepe hardly that tare Crave mistle and ivie for them for to spare. Tus. A barren and detested vale, you see it is: The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and leau, O'ercome with moss, and baleful misselto. Shaks. Misseltoe groweth chiefly upon crabtrees, apple trees, sometimes upon hazles, and rarely upon oks: the misseltee whereof is counted very medicinal: it is ever green winter and summer, and beareth a white glistering berry; and it is a plant utterly differing from the plant upon which it groweth. Bacon. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out, Some welcome for the mistress of the house. Like the lily, That once was mistress of the field and flourish'd, I will not charm my tongue; I'm bound to My mistress here lies murther'd in her bed. To be her mistress' mistress! the queen's queen. Rome now is mistress of the whole world, sea Wonder not, sov'reign mistress! if perhaps Thou can'st, who art sole wonder; much less They would not suffer the prince to confer with, or very rarely to see, his mistress, whom they pretended he should forthwith marry. Clarendon, Nice honour still engages to requite False mistresses and proud with slight for slight. Granville. All your temples strow With laurel green, and sacred mistletoe. 6. A term of contemptuous address. Gay. MISTLIKE. adj. [mist and like.] ResemLock you pale, mistress, bling a mist. Do you perceive the ghastness of her eye? Shaks 7. A whore; a concubine. MISTRUST. n. s. [mis and trust.] Diffidence; suspicion; want of confidence. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers Our offices, and what we have to do, To the direction just. Good Romeo, hide thyself. Shakspeare. MISTO LD. The part. pass. of mistell. Milton. MISTRESS.N.S. [maistresse, maîtresse, Fr.] 1. A woman who governs; correlative to subject or to servant, Shakspeare. Not then mistrust, but tender love enjoins That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me? Milton To MISTRUST. v. a. [mis and trust.] To suspect; to doubt; to regard with dif fidence. Will any man allege those human infirmities, reasons why these things should be mistrusted or doubted of. Hooker. By a divine instinct, mens minds mistrust Ensuing danger; as by proof we see, The waters swell before a boisterous storm. Shakspeare. Fate her own book mistrusted at the sight. On that side war, on this a single fight. Coruley. The relation of a Spartan youth, that suffered a fox concealed under his robe to tear out his bowels, is mistrusted by men of business. Brown. The gen'rous train complies, Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue's fair disguise. Pope. MISTRU ́STFUL. adj. [mistrust and full.] Diffident; doubting. I hold it cowardice To rest mistrustful, where a noble heart Hath pawn'd an open hand in sign of love. Shak. Here the mistrustful fowl no harm suspects, So safe are all things which our king protects. Waller. MISTRUSTFULNESS. 2. S. [from mistrustful.] Diffidence; doubt. Without him I found a weakness, and a mistrustfulness of myself, as one strayed from his best strength, when at any time I mist him. Sidney. MISTRUSTFULLY. adv. [from mistrustful.] With suspicion; with mistrust. MISTRUSTLESs. adj. [from mistrust.] Confident; unsuspecting. Where he doth in stream mistrustless play, Veil'd with night's robe, they stalk the shore abroad. Careru. Místy. adj. [from mist.] 1. Clouded; overspread with mists. Shakspeare. Parents overprize their children, while they behold them through the vapours of affection, which alter the appearance, as things seem bigger in misty mornings. Wotton. Now smoaks with show'rs the misty mountain ground, And floated fields lie undistinguish'd round. Pope. 2. Obscure; dark; not plain. To MISUNDERSTAND. . a. [mis and understand.] To misconceive; to mistake. The words of Tertullian, as they are by them alledged, are misunderstood. Hooker. He failed in distinguishing two regions, both called Eden, and altogether misunderstood two of the four rivers. Raleigh. In vain do men take sanctuary in such misunderstood expressions as these; and from a false persuasion that they cannot reform their lives, never go about it. South. This, if it be neglected, will make the reader very much mistake and misunderstand his meaning. Lucke. Were they only designed to instruct the three succeeding generations, they are in no danger of being misunderstood. Addison. The example of a good man is the best direction we can follow in the performance of our duty; the most exact rules and precepts are subject to be misunderstood; some at least will mistake their meaning. Rogers' Sermons, MISUNDERSTANDING. n. s. [from misunderstand.] 1. Dissension; difference; disagreement. There is a great misunderstanding betwixt the corpuscular philosophers and the chemists. Boyle. Servants mistake, and sometines occasion misunderstandings among friends. Swift. 2. Errour; misconception. Sever the construction of the injury from the point of contempt, imputing it to misunderstanding or fear. Bacon MISU SAGE. n. s. [from misuse.] 1. Abuse; ill use. 2. Bad treatment. To MISUSE. v. a. [mesuser, Fr. mis and use.] To treat or use improperly; to abuse. You misuse the rev'rence of your place, As a false favourite doth his prince's name In deeds dishonʼrable. Shakspeare. It hath been their custom shamefully to misuse the fervent zeal of men to religious arms, by converting the monies that have been levied for such wars to their own services. Raleigh. Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine. Milt. Machiavel makes it appear, that the weakness of Italy, once so strong, was caused by the corrupt practices of the papacy, in depraving and misusing religion. South. MISU SE. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. Evil or cruel treatment. Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, Such beastly, shameless transformation, By those Welshwomen done, as may not be Without much shame retold. Shakspeare. 2. Wrong or erroneous use. How names taken for things mislead the understanding, the attentive reading of philosophical writers would discover, and that in words little suspected of any such misuse. Locke. 3. Misapplication; abuse. We have reason to humble ourselves before God by fasting and prayer, lest he should punish the misuse of our mercies, by stopping the course of them. Atterbury. To MISWE EN. v. n. [mis and ween.] To misjudge; to distrust. Obsolete. Latter times things more unknown shall show, Why then should witless man so much miseen. Spenser. To MISWEND. v. n. [mis and pendan, In this maze still wand'red and miszvent, Mr'sy. n. s. A kind of mineral. Misy contains no vitriol but that of iron: it is a very beautiful mineral, of a tine bright yellow colour, of friable structure, and resembles the golden marcasites. Hill. MITE. n. s. [mite, Fr. mijt, Dutch.] 1. A small insect found in cheese or corn; a weevil. Virginity breeds mites like a cheese, consumes itself to the very paring, and dies with feeding its own stomach. Shakspeare. The polish'd glass, whose small convex Enlarges to ten millions of degrees, |