miscall

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English miscallen, equivalent to mis- +‎ call.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɪskɔːl/

• Audio (US):

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Verb

miscall (third-person singular simple present miscalls, present participle miscalling, simple past and past participle miscalled)

1. (now dialectal) To call (someone) bad names; to insult, abuse.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But one aboue the rest in speciall, / That had an hog beene late, hight Grille by name, / Repined greatly, and did him miscall, / That had from hoggish forme him brought to naturall.

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:

     He there exhorts us to hear with patience and humility those, however they be miscall'd, that desire to live purely, in such a use of Gods Ordinances, as the best guidance of their conscience gives them, and to tolerat them, though in some disconformity to our selves.

   • 1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 109:

     their wisest brains concluded that Christians wore the hideous thing that its broad brim might interpose between their weak eyes and the uncongenial sight of God. So it reminded Islam continually that God was miscalled and misliked by Christians.

2. To call (something) by the wrong name.

   Synonym: misname

   Hypernym: misidentify

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 174:

     I can believe such an instance—can believe love taking strong root amid cruelty, poverty, suffering, and danger, rather than in the withering atmosphere of this crowded city—this miscalled social, but really heartless, life; where petty interests distract the mind, and mean desires absorb the heart.

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 48:

     ‘In this country, peasants miscall it “Cowslip,” though of course the true Cowslip, Primula veris, is a different plant altogether.’

3. To make a wrong call (prediction or announcement).
   1. (politics) To announce the result of an election incorrectly.
      • 2002, A.E. Busch, J.W. Ceasar, The Perfect Tie: The True Story of the 2000 Presidential Election, Rowman & Littlefield, page 10:

        The networks soon discovered that they had miscalled Florida, based, so it was later explained, on important errors and miscalculations made from their combined pool source of information, the Voter News Service.

   2. (poker) To announce one's hand of cards incorrectly.
      • 1983, David M. Hayano, Poker Faces: The Life and Work of Professional Card Players, page 59:

        When the loser thinks he has the hand beat he turns over his hand only to find that the winner has miscalled his hand, and since "cards speak," the miscaller wins.

See also

• misdial (verb)
• misidentify
• mislabel
• misname
• missed call (verb)

 

Noun

miscall (plural miscalls)

1. An incorrect call.

See also

• misdial (noun)
• misidentification
• mislabeling
• misnaming
• missed call (noun)

 

Etymology 2

Noun

miscall (plural miscalls)

1. Archaic form of miskal.