misline

M3I1S1L1I1N1E1

verb

To incorrectly divide into lines.

Scrabble 9

Meanings

verbmisline (third-person singular simple present mislines, present participle mislining, simple past and past participle mislined)

present singular third person mislines · participle present mislining · participle past mislined · past mislined

  1. To incorrectly divide into lines.

    The author apparently mislined his verse here, as both texts place the words at the end of l. 60 but correctly end l. 61 with 'weepe'

    1952, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Cyril Tourneur, The Honest Mans Fortune, page 159
    2 more examples

    If the addition was in verse, he might set it up as prose or misline it, placing perhaps too many or too few feet in a line and thus throwing out the whole arrangement of the verse.

    1931, Lawrence Counselman Wroth, The Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, page 338

    Both compositors had some difficulty with lineation, but X mislined his copy only eight times whereas Y mislined his stint twenty-two times, often in more serious ways.

    1981, Christopher Marlowe, Fredson Bowers, The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe, page 6

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

misline. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misline

MLA

“misline.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misline. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misline,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misline.

Source: misline on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.