mispour

present singular third person mispours · participle present mispouring · participle past mispoured · past mispoured

1. To make a mistake while pouring.

   Political debate leads the coffee boy to spill his tray, and the informally dressed figure on the right to mispour his coffee.

   1986, John Brewer, The Common People and Politics, 1750-1790s, page 128

   3 more examples

   That is, he becomes so dependent on the optical pyrometer that when the pyrometer goes bad –and they all do with the best of checking and with the best of care you are frequently "up against it” for the pourer has become so dependent on it that he mispours on a series of castings.

   1925, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, page 493

   Becoming skilled in domestic activities, such as cooking or even pouring out drinks for everyone, will not go perfectly every time. Juice will be mispoured, egg shells will be mistakenly dropped into the cake mix.

   2000, Paul Bonel, Jennie Lindon, Playwork: A Guide to Good Practice, page 94

   Although my favourite tipple of the time (and for many years afterwards) was draught Guinness, my gallantry towards the young lady behind the bar was such that I used to consume any drinks she mis-poured, rather than see her pour them away.

   2013, Martin Rickerd, The Patriotic Art

plural mispours

1. The act or result of mispouring.

   I drank all the mispours and bar-keep's rejects, that's when I learned how much I liked drinking in the afternoon.

   2007, Kathryn Trueblood, The Baby Lottery, page 137

   3 more examples

   After one such mispour, the difficulty was corrected by extending the graphite pouring tube almost into the mouth of the mold.

   1955, Henry A. Saller, Robert F. Dickerson, E. L. Foster, Induction-melted Zirconium and Zirconium Alloys, page 6

   In the present foundry there are occasional mispours in which the crucible liner and crucible induction heating coils become splattered with metal; also, the mold and lower parts of the furnace sometimes get splattered from a mispour.

   1970, Proceedings of the Conference on Hot Laboratories and Equipment, page 94

   Oops may quite appropriately acknowledge a splash of milk on starched linen from a slight mispour but not a stream of boiling water on the thigh of one's hostess.

   2016, Ulrike Stange, Emotive Interjections in British English, page 62