miscall

present singular third person miscalls · participle present miscalling · participle past miscalled · past miscalled

1. dialectalTo call (someone) bad names; to insult, abuse.

   But one aboue the rest in speciall, / That had an hog beene late, hight Grille by name, / Repined greatly, and did him miscall, / That had from hoggish forme him brought to naturall.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   He there exhorts us to hear with patience and humility those, however they be miscall'd, that desire to live purely, in such a use of Gods Ordinances, as the best guidance of their conscience gives them, and to tolerat them, though in some disconformity to our selves.

   1644, John Milton, Areopagitica

   their wisest brains concluded that Christians wore the hideous thing that its broad brim might interpose between their weak eyes and the uncongenial sight of God. So it reminded Islam continually that God was miscalled and misliked by Christians.

   1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 109

2. To call (someone or something) incorrectly or by the wrong title or name.

   ‘In this country, peasants miscall it “Cowslip,” though of course the true Cowslip, Primula veris, is a different plant altogether.’

   1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 48

   1 more example

   I can believe such an instance—can believe love taking strong root amid cruelty, poverty, suffering, and danger, rather than in the withering atmosphere of this crowded city—this miscalled social, but really heartless, life; where petty interests distract the mind, and mean desires absorb the heart.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 174

   Synonyms: misname

3. To make a wrong call (prediction or announcement).
   1. governmentTo announce the result of an election incorrectly.

      The networks soon discovered that they had miscalled Florida, based, so it was later explained, on important errors and miscalculations made from their combined pool source of information, the Voter News Service.

      2002, A.E. Busch, J.W. Ceasar, The Perfect Tie: The True Story of the 2000 Presidential Election, Rowman & Littlefield, page 10

   2. card gamesTo announce one's hand of cards incorrectly.

      When the loser thinks he has the hand beat he turns over his hand only to find that the winner has miscalled his hand, and since "cards speak," the miscaller wins.

      1983, David M. Hayano, Poker Faces: The Life and Work of Professional Card Players, page 59

plural miscalls

1. An incorrect call.

plural miscalls

1. archaicArchaic form of miskal.