misfigure

English

Etymology

From mis- +‎ figure.

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈfɪɡə(ɹ)/, /mɪsˈfɪɡjʊə(ɹ)/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsˌfɪɡə(ɹ)/, /ˈmɪsˌfɪɡjʊə(ɹ)/

Verb

misfigure (third-person singular simple present misfigures, present participle misfiguring, simple past and past participle misfigured)

1. To miscalculate; to make a computational error.
   • 1960, South of The Angles Jessamyn West, page 166:

     But you make another mistake — you misfigure dates again — and you've got something more to answer for.

   • 1989, Changing Times, page 56:

     You're a Gray-Area Misfigurer when you misfigure accidentally on purpose. Say your 100 shares of a $20 stock go up to $22, so you claim bragging rights to 10% profits. However, when you figure in commission, your shares really cost more like $2,050.

   • 2000, Donald J. Goodman, A Diamond in the Rough: Muskegon Community College, page 321:

     You might argue about letting borderline students squeak through some courses, but who wants a nurse who misfigures her meds?

2. To make an incorrect assessment.
   • 1891, Outing - Volume 18, page 380:

     "Now, see here, mister, you get right back into that brush, a bargain's a bargain and you're not near the tree yet." “But I'se jest—” “Never mind now, you just misfigured a trifle, that's all, and I stay in the open till the tree is reached.”

   • 1997, John Wood, The Gates of the Elect Kingdom: Poems, page 28:

     And they did and the end began, and all Winkler 's words couldn't stop it: "Even prophets can misfigure, but the Vision's still true. Christ's still coming . Why leave; life's good here. "

   • 2005, Yanek Mieczkowski, Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s:

     Carter press secretary Jody Powell conceded that “we completely misfigured Ford's ability to pull off his 'Rose Garden campaign.' That was really a surprise to us. They've worked that to perfection.”

3. To misrepresent or disguise.
   • 1641, John Goodwin, Impedit Ira Animum, Or Animadversions Upon Some of the Looser and Fouler Passages in a Written Pamphlet Intituled., page 6:

     If M W, at any time seemes to make some slender explication of himselfe in some of these particulars, he soone misfigures againe his owne expression with words of manifest inconsistency therewith: so that the setled judgement of the Author in the Question controverted, must be some where else inquired after, then in his discourse: This I can say of mine own knowledge, that when I was with him, pressing him to know, whither by righteoousnesse of Christ (in his opinion) he meant the righteousnesse of his nature, consisting of inward habits or dispositions of grace and holinesse; or the righteousnesse of his life, consisting of those righteous acts, which he performed in obedience to the Law of God, or whither he included them both, he absolutely denied, that he meant either the one or the other, or both together.

   • 1870, Edward Peacock, Ralf Skirlaugh, The Lincolnshire Squire:

     He may misfigure hissen next time as he likes, I shall knaw him.

   • 1985, Pavel Petr, David Roberts, Philip John Thomson, Comic Relations: Studies in the Comic, Satire, and Parody, page 196:

     Logically speaking, a parodic reading is either intentionalist or voluntarist: either it presupposes a complicity between the reader and the author in their critical apprehension of the way the parodied discourse misfigures reality, or it is motivated by interests extrinsic to the text for which the reader is accountable.

   • 1987, Horace Newcomb, Television: The Critical View, page 586:

     Western consumer society and media (whether applied to program structure or to the audience's act of viewing) necessarily misfigures the form and significance of the television discourse.

   • 1999, Laura Kipnis, Bound and Gagged, page 150:

     But the violence here is that of being misidentified, of having one's desire misfigured as "male desire."

4. To disfigure.
   • 1959, Barnett Hollander, The International Law of Art, for Lawyers, Collectors, and Artists, page 247:

     Section 1427: makes it a misdemeanour for anyone not the owner wilfully to injure, misfigure, remove or destroy the work of art, and, similarly Section 1428: provides that the person who wilfully or maliciously cuts, tears, defaces, disfigures, soils, obliterates, breaks or destorys an object of art or curiosity deposited in a public library, gallery, museum, collection, fair or exhibition is punishable by prison or fine, or both.

   • 1989, John Clare, Eric Robinson, David Powell, The Early Poems of John Clare, 1804-1822 - Volume 2, page 418:

     Canst thou look on my poor wrinkld face & not wonder That such alterations misfigures my prime

   • 2000, Steve Tatham, 1001, a Video Odyssey: Movies to Watch for Your Every Mood, page 181:

     Jack and an enormously-breasted teenage Jane go off to summer camp where seventeen of their friends are hacked to pieces by an ax-wielding lumberjack named Mr. Big who has been misfigured by a horrible logging accident and has escaped from Jane's nightmares.

   • 2008, T. D. Jakes, Insights to Help You survive Peaks and Valleys:

     No matter what has misfigured you, in God is the power to be transformed.

5. (optics) To err in the manufacture of an optical surface so that it causes distortions.
   • 1980, Richard N. Shagam, William C. Sweatt, Optical Alignment: Proceedings : July 29-31, 1980, page 111:

     If the flat rim of the center axicon is misfigured in such a way that its best fit plane is not perpendicular to the axis of symmetry of the center axicon ( defined in a least squares sense ) this deviation will […]

   • 1983 August 23, Gregory C . Dente, “Separating misalignment from misfigure in interferograms on off - axis aspheres”, in Precision Surface Metrology, page 188:

     Should the element be misfigured, then these aberrations would be combined with the actual misfigure.

   • 2012, Willem Wamsteker, Malcolm S. Longair, Y. Kondo, Frontiers Of Space And Ground-Based Astronomy, page 93:

     Both provide corrective optics which essentially cancel the wavefront error introduced by the misfigured primary mirror.

Noun

misfigure (plural misfigures)

1. An incorrect figure.
   • 1889, Travelers' Record - Volumes 25-26:

     All the uncertainties and misfigures of plans like this profit the agents and the companies, never the insured.

   • 1910, New York Supreme Court Appellate Division First Department, page 256:

     There are misprints and misfigures and misnames in it.

   • 1959, American Journal of Correction, page 32:

     The machine cannot reason; the machine cannot know emotion; it is a mere receptacle of facts and misfigures.

2. (optics) The misfigured portion of an optical surface, or the presence of such a portion.
   • 1983 August 23, Gregory C. Dente, “Separating misalignment from misfigure in interferograms on off - axis aspheres”, in Precision Surface Metrology, page 188:

     Should the element be misfigured, then these aberrations would be combined with the actual misfigure.

   • 1989, Bernard David Seery, Optomechanical Design of Laser Transmitters and Receivers, page 255:

     Compensation for optical surface misfigure was provided by a phase conjugating mirror to construct a phase conjugated transmitter subsystem.

   • 1990, Russell A. Chipman, Polarization Considerations for Optical Systems II, page 320:

     In most systems, the optical misfigure can be at least partially corrected by focussing at one wavelength.

   • 2006, Renaud Foy, Françoise Claude Foy, Optics in Astrophysics, page 30:

     For primitive it may seem, this test is exquisitely sensitive to surface misfigure, and will immediately reveal errors that may escape the most modern metrology.