misgrab en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈmɪsɡɹæb/
Etymology
From mis- + grab.
Meanings
-
A failed attempt to grab something.
He hauls in the twenty yards of it in frantic haste, making many a misgrab and getting more excited, I'll warrant, than he ever was with any but his first bear.
1903, Forest and Stream - Volume 61, page 215:I made a misgrab and it touched the saw and flew up.
1916, Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department, page 667:All this helped, but nevertheless it was a hazardous undertaking. A slip or a misgrab and he would fall under his own engine.
1938, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine, page 127:All around was nothing but air, the endless abyss of Virga; a misgrab here would send you on a slow trip around the world, with the birds, bugs, and fish making a moving feast of you along the way.
2007, Karl Schroeder, Sun of Suns, page 141:
-
(figuratively) A mistake.
Unfortunately, notwithstanding all his wisdom, he had made a misgrab, for Noah, the chief of the saved, was soon unmasked as a drunken sot who disported with his own daughters.
2019, Chaz Bufe, Dan Arel, Godless: 150 Years of Disbelief:It is easy for the American visitor to make a “misgrab” here because, blinded by the surface similarities, he fails to take the hidden differences into consideration.
1964, William J. Danker, Two Worlds Or None: Rediscovering Missions, page 91:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| misgrabs | Number=Plur | lexicographic |