mishear

present singular third person mishears · participle present mishearing · participle past misheard · past misheard

1. ambitransitiveTo hear wrongly.

   I misheard when she asked for mints, and gave her mince instead.

   3 more examples

   And if any mishear or misutter it, even that also serves, since it warns.

   1883, Meeds Tuthill, The Civil Polity of the United States Considered in Its Theory and Practice, page 240

   When a slickly handsome drug dealer named Legrand (Michael Beach, in the film's most seductive performance), first meets the teen-ager on the playground, he mishears the name Manigault. "Did he say Nanny Goat?" Legrand asks, explaining the nickname in one quick, witty stroke.

   1996 November 23, Caryn James, “From Hero To Heroin And Back”, in The New York Times

   Our report of a relative who, as a child, thought the classic version of the Lord's Prayer began "Our father, a chart in heaven, Harold be thy name" stated that this type of mistake is known as an eggcorn. A number of readers have suggested that instances like this in which a whole phrase rather than just a word is misheard, should be called mondegreens rather than eggcorns.

   2006 November 18, “Feedback”, in New Scientist, archived from the original on 24 May 2016, page 218

2. To misunderstand.