misfavor

present singular third person misfavors · participle present misfavoring · participle past misfavored · past misfavored · alternative misfavour

1. To dislike or disapprove of; to view with displeasure or dislike.

   I do not misfavor a general freeze now.

   1948, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking and Currency, National Stabilization, page 573

   2 more examples

   I misfavor the bearin' o' yon micos," MacPherson muttered out of a corner of his mouth as the first Creek leaders strode out over burned brown grass on the square fronting the House of Strangers.

   1964, Francis van Wyck Mason, Rascals' Heaven, page 269

   She never would name any particular items as the one she thought might have been misfavored by the heavenly father, but she named three or four things any one of which might have been contrary to God's will, but positively refused to name one for herself.

   2006, Vickie Cleverley Speek, God Has Made Us a Kingdom: James Strang and the Midwest Mormons, page 271

2. To disadvantage or exhibit bias against.

plural misfavors · alternative misfavour

1. countableuncountableDisapproval or antipathy; disfavor.

   The fools charge her with diabolical trafficking, believing her misfortune the result of divine misfavor!

   2001, Martin Harry Greenberg, 100 wicked witch stories, page 537

   2 more examples

   The spoils system may well be the primary explanation for administrative unwillingness to take any action which would curry political misfavor.

   1972, Loyola of Los Angeles law review - Volume 5, page 83

   Indeed only a handful of citizens opposed the project; and we were the target of much public criticism and misfavor.

   1991, Jonathan Kusel, Well-being in Forest-dependent Communities, page 198

2. countableuncountableA disservice or detriment.

   The book is a great misfavor to the mysterious, exciting , and even elegant squid.

   1992, Children's Literature Review - Volume 28, page 53

   2 more examples

   And one of the prices of specialization is the realization by a specialist of how important he may be to some city, because some city I think does him a misfavor sometimes by making him believe that he is a man of consequence more than he maybe really, actually is.

   1953, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, Full Committee Hearings on H.R. 4495, page 559

   Following a cursory audition requiring my singing an octave while Miss Dubois was playing it on the piano—a procedure stacked in my misfavor since I had recently learned to play the piano—I was chosen for the role of Captain, a role, that unfortunately, as I was soon to learn, requires more than an octave.

   2013, M. Robert Gardner, On Trying To Teach: The Mind in Correspondence, page 152

3. countablerareuncountableInappropriate approval.

   Just now we are passing through a period when many religious people are deliberately repudiating reason as a way to the goodness of God. These radical swings back and forth between misfavor and disfavor of reason are disruptive to the growth of genuine high religion.

   1938, Henry Nelson Wieman, Walter Marshall Horton, The Growth of Religion - Volume 61, page 404