Dictionary

misfinger en · VERB

Etymology

From mis- + finger.

Meanings

1. To make a mistake in the finger positions when playing an instrument, resulting in a wrong note.
   • The pupil comes for his lesson and possibly has not thoroughly learned some part of it; he does not keep the time true, misfingers, strikes wrong notes, or, to take a milder illustration, does not feel the balance of the parts, does not divine the meaning of the composer, does not appreciate the beauty of the unity of the work as a whole, has not, in fact, "finished" it; 1893 June, Herbert J. Krew, “A Music Teacher's Duty From the Standpoint of an Intelligent Pupil”, in Theodore Presser, editor, Etude: The Music Magazine, volume 11, number 6, page 129:
   • If Holmes misfingers a note on one of the violin strings, that is merely some small fault within the unified organisation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Incorporated. 2000, Patricia Fanthorpe, Death: The Final Mystery, page 119:
   • The dancers had started on a third pass when Lady Lucianne piped a sour note. She blushed and laughed at her own mistake, interrupting her playing and causing Victor to misfinger his part as well. 2001, Teresa DesJardien, The Marriage Masquerade, page 49:
   • This means that if he misfingers and is thrown a distance from his intended note, he can continue from where he is, even if the note results in a modulation that takes him into another key. 2009, Stanley Crouch, Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz:
2. To misplace the hands or fingers when typing, resulting in errors in the resulting text.
   • BUt now, not wanting to drift from my intentions I look to some notes I made yesterday. And I retype that as 'but now' for I don't wish to perpetuate every misfingering. 2000, John Christopher Jones, The Internet and Everyone, page 123:
   • Each one watched the one at the machine and didn't allow any misfingering. Very quickly they learned the touch method for the middle row. 1959, The Balance Sheet - Volume 41, page 48:
   • The Charging Party contended that the only problem she had concerned misfingering on the first day use of the word processor. 1990, Michigan Employment Relations Commission, MERC Labor Opinions, page 303:
3. To unthinkingly or accidentally touch someone or something one should not.
   • The causes? Overconfidence? Misfingering? Disbelief that anything serious could happen, by that opponent, so early? 1966, Chess Review, page 334:
   • I'm sorry, I misfingered, Dr Bowen shows me simian contact is disturbing to you. 2012, Will Self, Great Apes: Reissued, page 236:
4. To fumble or place something incorrectly due to poor coordination of the fingers.
   • I was soon able to set sentences of three or four words without a thought of looking at the board, and the habit of reading the matrices as they assembled in the box, which I cultivated, now enables me to “spot" a transposition, or even a misfinger, or a matrix running in wrong channel, quite easily. 1907, The British Printer - Volume 20, page 173:
   • DUKE: Alas! Methinks I have misfinger'd it! FERDINAND: Sire, bend thou down thine aged frame And do thou smartly pluck it up again. 2007, Michael Frayn, Collected Columns, page 46:

Forms