Did you possibly mean underestimate?
Definitions
Wiktionary
- v. colloquial To underestimate severely.
Etymologies
- Blend of misunderstand and underestimate. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“- Maybe, as Bush said in his final press conference, we "misunderestimate" - them.”
“At least he didn't ask the kids not to "misunderestimate" their potential!”
“To be sure, one must never "misunderestimate" Americans 'eagerness to put ignoramuses in office, though with the Tea Party biting at its heels, the Republicans' offerings this time around may have gone a step or three too far.”
“But to pretend that Palin isn't part of the ruling elite (and thus ostensibly "part of the problem") as opposed to her self-construction as an anti-elite crusader, is to dangerously "misunderestimate" (to quote the quintessential example) the lockstep power of the media in constructing our shared reality.”
The Huffington Post: Randall Amster: First Amendment Remedies: Hey, Sarah, Refudiate This
“So she tried again: "'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate' ...," she good-naturedly tweeted.”
The Washington Post: Who will refudiate the displaced foreign travelers?
“She also encited George W. Bush's "misunderestimate" as a speculant examplar of the reclectorance of the English Language.”
The Huffington Post: Dylan Brody: In Defensity of Sarah Palin
“Problem is, the Democrats have borrowed one too many pages from the Bush Crime Family's playbook and now totally "misunderestimate" their constituents.”
The Huffington Post: Mike Malloy: Climate Change You Can Believe In
“The model for refudiate will likely not be outlandish malapropisms such "misunderestimate," which enter and are laughed out of the public forum in a matter of days.”
The Huffington Post: Asher Smith: Refudiate is the New Normalcy
“You really insult me and my family when you "misunderestimate" our white, blue collar intelligence.”
“Perhaps the lesson is never "misunderestimate" the ability of the American people to be fooled.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘misunderestimate’.
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Mentally irregular
Words for the mentally irregular
bonkers, unhinged, batshit crazy, cognitive dissonance, apophenia, undone, loony, unsound, deranged, a bit off the beam, daft, stark ravin' mad and 65 more...
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Words for the Modern Man
A list of words and phrases for those who are not all too familiar with the 21st century.
3G, 4G, affluenza, agritourism, auto-tune, burkini, buzz, captcha, chatroom, cloud, content farm, dramedy and 21 more...
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Words of the Times
Words discovered while reading The New York Times, each with a citation from the paper.
testilying, ghost talk, apneist, solastalgia, izakaya, hooker, telectroscope, airflyte, phomance, bromhidrosis, stinky feet, cupping and 482 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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All the Presidents' Words
Words coined or popularized by U.S. presidents.
administration, Brother Jonathan, Jeffersonian, belittle, odometer, public relations, kitchen cabinet, Jacksonian, spoils system, OK, lame duck, teddy bear and 27 more...
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Bushisms: Where Wings Take Dream
Bushonics is so much more than neologisms and nonstandard agentive endings. He has brought malapropism, pleonasm, catachresis, solecism, and utter gibberish to new heights. Not to mention the thinn...
misunderestimate, tacular, strategery, hypnotheoretical, internets, hispanically, decider, subliminable, hispanos, resignate, arbolist, transformationed and 8 more...
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michaelhvrt's list
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Blistering Blunders!
When famous people are just wrong about obvious things, the rest of the world laughs at them.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for misunderestimate.
curly A powerful eggcorn, coined by the former malapropist-in-chief.
It has one meaning, opposite to its apparent meaning. it is a synonym for underestimate, but is used in ironic contexts. Jul 2, 2009
jmjarmstrong JM delights in no longer needing to misunderestimate the US President Feb 1, 2009
michaelhvrt I hate to disappoint you guys but Bush didn't make up misunderestimate. Here are a few instances of it's use far before him.
1897 ...is almost sure to misunderstand and misunderestimate the significance of the question at hand. — The Outlook, American Diplomacy on the Bosphorous April 17, 1897
1975 Now in the very earliest years of the eighteenth century it is understandable that, owing to the inevitable, due to our never-to-be-misunderestimated Frederick the Gross... — Thomas Merton, My Argument With the Gestapo 1975.
1980 And I think after Three Mile Island, not only does the NRC itself understand that it sadly misunderestimated the number of ways in ... — Accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Powerplant: Oversight Hearings 1980
1992 ...not only the disciples within their accounts, had seriously misunderestimated the life and teaching of Jesus. — Adelbert Denaux, John and the Synoptics 1992
1997 Whatever happened to Espy? Well, what happened to Espy is what happens to people whether you're a former congressman or not. If you understand the power -- if you misunderestimate the power of the intense bureaucracy in these agencies and departments and federal institutions, you go, they stay.. — John Conyers (D-MI), DELIVERS REMARKS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE'S COALITION OF MINORITY EMPLOYEES August 19, 1997
It is:
1. (colloquial, malapropism, or, intentionally incorrect) To underestimate by failing to understand.
2. (colloquial, malapropism, or, intentionally incorrect) To hold in low esteem, yet still expect too much.
3. (colloquial, malapropism, or, intentionally incorrect) To insufficiently or incorrectly underestimate.
Oh yeah, I am not a subject under military jurisdiction. So, the President is not my Commander in Chief. And by the way does anyone want to tell the class what the gold fringe around the American Flag represents. Jan 23, 2009
rolig Technically, the US president is not "our commander in chief" unless "we" are members of the US Armed Forces. The president is the servant and employee, not the commander, of U.S. citizens, which is a concept Bush never really understood. Jan 15, 2009
whichbe I agree with yarb on this one. One of the phrases I would love to bury, though it never will, is "our commander in chief". Jan 15, 2009
chained_bear Could be, yarb. But maybe not—no one can say but the man himself, and does anyone really believe anything he says anymore? Is it not clear that the first time he said it, at least, he did think it was a word?
Besides, I think Collins has tongue firmly implanted in cheek—she seems to in the rest of the article.
My favorite sentence: "And the last time George W. Bush did not factor into our lives feels like around 1066." Jan 15, 2009
yarb I think Gail Collines has missed the point completely. He doesn't "think it's a word"! Isn't it obvious that his use of "misunderestimate" at his farewell press conference is a jocular reference to the verbal gaffes he's become famous for?
Incidentally I'm not so sure that some of his catalogue of pisspronunciations weren't scripted to reinforce the "folksy" image. Jan 15, 2009
reesetee Honestly. I won't miss it. Jan 15, 2009
john “‘Sometimes you misunderestimated me,’ Bush told the Washington press corps. This is not the first time our president has worried about misunderestimation, so it’s fair to regard this not as a slip of the tongue, but as something the president of the United States thinks is a word. The rhetoric is the one part of the administration we’re surely going to miss. We are about to enter a world in which our commander in chief speaks in full sentences, and I do not know what we’re going to do to divert ourselves on slow days.�?
The New York Times, He’s Leaving. Really. , by Gail Collins, January 14, 2009 Jan 15, 2009