amiss

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'Tis not amiss, my liege, for either part To breathe a while; our men, with sweat and dust All chok'd well near, begin to faint for heat And this retire refresheth horse and man.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. adjective Out of proper order: What is amiss?
  2. adjective Not in perfect shape; faulty.
  3. adverb In an improper, defective, unfortunate, or mistaken way.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • If anything went amiss, they felt that the blame must rest with them If matters were found right, they would not leave the cavern until one or both of their friends returned When half the distance was passed, Roswell, who was in the load, broke into a lope, with Frank instantly doing the same. —  Klondike Nuggets and How Two Boys Secured Them
  • If my nurse, who knew My voice so well, sometimes misunderstood While I was resting on her knee both arms And hitting it to make her mind my words And looking in her face, and she in mine Might he not also hear one word amiss Spoken from so far off, even from Olympus Again, compare Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh As it was, indeed I felt a mother-want about the world And still went seeking, like a bleating lamb Left out at night, in shutting up the fold As restless as a nest-deserted bird Grown chill through something being away, though what It knows not. —  The Principles of English Versification
  • If my nurse, who knew My voice so well, sometimes misunderstood While I was resting on her knee both arms And hitting it to make her mind my words And looking in her face, and she in mine Might not he, also, hear one word amiss Spoken from so far off, even from Olympus The father placed his cheek upon her head And tears dropt down it; but the king of men Replied not. —  Practical English Composition: Book II. For the Second Year of the High School
  • Rockabie arn't amiss, and things has to be as they is. —  The Lost Middy Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap
  • "(1193 M617 When the Entertainment Committee waited on his majesty to thank him for his condescension in accepting the City’s entertainment and to crave his pardon for whatever had gone amiss, they took the opportunity of satisfying him on certain matters—viz., the repair of St. Paul’s and the building a drawbridge on London bridge—about which his majesty desired to be informed. —  London and the Kingdom - Volume II
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English amis, probably from Old Norse ā mis, so as to miss : ā, on; see an- in Indo-European roots + mis, act of missing; see mei-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English amisse, amysse, a mysse, a mys, o mys, also on mys, of mys, earliest form a mis (= Icelandic ā mis, ā miss): a, o, on, English a; mis, English miss, fault; cf. Middle English mis, adverb, amiss. See miss and mis-.
  2. from late Middle English amisse, from miss, n., q. v., by confusion with amiss, adv.
 

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/əˈmɪs/
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