misweigh

present singular third person misweighs · participle present misweighing · participle past misweighed · past misweighed

1. To give an inaccurate measurement of the weight (of something).

   How can you misweigh with that kind of equipment?

   1975, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. Subcommittee on Foreign Agricultural Policy, Grain Inspection, page 66

   3 more examples

   An honest butcher, for instance, might sue if his picture were used with an article about butchers who misweigh meat.

   1973, Bill Severn, The Right to Privacy, page 27

   Violations—Bribery of inspectors to falsely grade or misweigh grain, to alter or counterfeit official inspection certificates, or to falsely represent that an official grain inspection has been made.

   1984, Law Enforcement Responsibilities: Office of Inspector General

   In February 1942, Nina Kobyzeva complained that civilians did not receive full rations for obvious reasons: "Clerks are finagling people like beasts, they misweigh [food]. Scales are not always verified, and besides these ten grams [of food] they try to finagle buyers."

   2021, Jeffrey K. Hass, Wartime Suffering and Survival, page 58

2. To treat (something) as having a level of importance different from its actual importance.

   And you misweigh the situation.

   2002, R.A. Salvatore, Ascendance, page 75

   3 more examples

   This psychological tendency to misweigh what is easily recalled is a major reason why people are attracted to lotteries despite the dismal odds of winning, as they have seen other ordinary people win a lottery on the news.

   2015, Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor, page 80

   But despite all of this, Carl might misweigh his evidence, treating his independent evidence about P as outweighing Carla's testimony out of disrespect for Carla, rather than on the basis of his appreciation that she is trying to trick him.

   2019, Conor Mchugh, Jonathan Way, Daniel Whiting, Metaepistemology, page 209

   A big part of this human underperformance is our tendency to misweigh the importance of one variable versus another.

   2021, Daniel Crosby, The Laws of Wealth

plural misweighs

1. An instance of misweighing (giving an inaccurate measurement of weight)

   If there is a misweigh or misfigure, the Dye Superintendent needs to know who was responsible.

   1978, AATCC, Book of Papers, page 142

   2 more examples

   Discrepancies in the gloss level of the batch sample could be caused by a misweigh of one or more of the ink components or, on the continuous type of mills, it could be due to an incorrect mill setting or condition.

   1993, Robert H. Leach, The Printing Ink Manual, page 831831

   If the furnace settings are correct, this condition would indicate a misweigh, usually meaning the silica was probably left out of the mill.

   2009, Steve Kilczewski, 66th Porcelain Enamel Institute Technical Forum, page 73