misprove

present singular third person misproves · participle present misproving · participle past misproved · past misproved

1. archaicTo disprove; to provide evidence that contradicts.

   “You yourself misprove that,” Dewar said.

   2018, Elizabeth Willey, A Sorcerer and a Gentleman

   3 more examples

   At this Giulio abode stupefied and well-nigh beside himself, acknowledging that Delio spoke the truth; nevertheless, impatient to rid himself of the annoy wherein he found himself, "I know very full well," quoth he, "that thou sayest sooth and that, if this wicked woman choose to be obstinate and persist in her lies, I can nowise misprove her by evidence and we shall be worse off than ever; but meseemeth Camillo should put far more trust in my most true words than in thelies of a woman of the vilest sort, whom he hath again and again proved to be a liar.

   1890, Matteo Bandello, The Novels of Matteo Bandello: Bishop of Agen - Volume 4, page 277

   The history of how the thing came to be written, and why I kept it unaltered in translating, would prove ( or misprove ) this mistake the critic makes.

   1899 (work published in 2000), Mary Antin, edited by Evelyn Salz, Selected Letters of Mary Antin, page 18

   if the different study of rocks and formations, and stalactites and stalgmites and so forth, prove that, dripping, of millions of years, and God said He made the heavens and earth in one twenty-four hours, doesn't that misprove, disprove the Bible?

   2021, Kyle Morton, Some Thoughts

2. To provide an erroneous proof for.

   It is easy to ignore the difference between theory and law. It is easy to pull data out of context to misprove things. (They make it look like something is true when it is really false.)

   2018, Douglas K. Johanson, Creationism and the Book of Revelation