Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To speak or pronounce incorrectly: The lead actor misspoke his lines.
- v. To speak mistakenly, inappropriately, or rashly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To speak wrongly or improperly.
- To speak disrespectfully or disparagingly: with of.
- To speak or pronounce wrongly; utter imperfectly.
- To express improperly or imperfectly; speak otherwise than according to one's intention: used reflexively: as, I misspoke myself. [Colloq.] To blame or calumniate.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive, obsolete To speak insultingly or disrespectfully.
- v. intransitive To fail to pronounce, utter, or speak correctly
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To err in speaking.
- v. To utter wrongly.
WordNet 3.0
- v. pronounce a word incorrectly
Etymologies
- From mis- + speak. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“[Josh] • "This use of 'misspeak' is of American origin.”
“Part of the reason Obama's having trouble dismissing this as a "misspeak" is because of the construct of his remarks, the underlying condescension, and the fact that he's built a reputation for being a gifted and precise communicator.”
“No, that was a misspeak from a very tired candidate who meant to say 47 out of 50″ and it came out wrong.”
Think Progress » Palin says her favorite founding father is ‘all of them.’
“I know what you lemming like uneducated lefties are thinking, but he said it twice so he didn't "misspeak".”
“By the end, and after more than a half-dozen repetitions, Blumenthal had come up with the word of the day: "misspeak," a malleable and vague term that could perhaps be described as the act of lying unintentionally — or, in Blumenthal's case, painting it as the fault of someone else who took it out of context.”
“And once in a while do some research, because as you obvioulsy are still ignorant of the fact that HRC has a tendancy to "misspeak" and you can't take her work as gospel.”
“What should be a factor in the Super Delegates 'decision is the job loss' misspeak 'in Valpariso, IN. and the Peter Paul v. Clinton, et al in CA.”
“Hillarious Clinton has done it again, ladies and gentleman ... it's hard to believe anything that comes out of her mouth these days – she could "misspeak" at any moment.”
“We were pretty harsh against Hillary for her "misspeak" on Bosnia sniper fire.”
“How many times can he "misspeak" before it becomes painfully obvious that the man doesn't hane a clue unless he has Joe Leiberman whispering the answers in his ear.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘misspeak’.
-
Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
-
personal distaste
good grief, I'm getting irritable.
salvo, taboo, redoubtable, foment, intransigence, disingenuous, infarction, obviate, junta, aetiology, expedited, gerrymandering and 201 more...
-
Euphemisms
Mostly awful and political.
information campaign, enemy combatant, person of interest, collateral damage, friendly fire, detention centre, children overboard, asylum seeker, health care, national interest, economic management, redeployment and 114 more...
-
Diplomatic Language
aide-memoire, resolution, compromise, diplomatics, genteel, decorum, misspeak, proviso, arab, savoir faire, lacunae, diacritical and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for misspeak.
quotato The word "misspeak" has a long and varied history, says John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
"It goes back to the Old English period before the Norman Conquest to mean to murmur or grumble.
"But it's got quite a wide sense of meanings, to speak insultingly or improperly or to speak disparagingly or disrespectfully or to speak evil of. Then in the mid to late Middle Ages, it was to pronounce incorrectly." Mar 26, 2008