Dictionary

misgrieve en · VERB

Etymology

From mis- + grieve.

Meanings

1. To injure in a way that creates grief.
   • Soul of Condorcet! — tell me that misgrieves My spirit, if unto thy thought profound Hope scintillates; 1853, Thomas Cooper, The Purgatory of Suicides: A Prison-rhyme, page 170:
   • I respectfully state that if we defer till tomorrow it will create unnecessary misgrieving. We should be generous in giving safeguards and providing as much independence to the Judiciary as we can. 1973, Pakistan. National Assembly, Parliamentary Debates. Official Report, page 2067:
   • and further hit is agreed by the said twelve men that hit shalbe lawfull for any Inhabytant that finds him selfe misgrieved shall impound the said sheepe and the same to retayne vntill the said offender be content to paye x. 1919, Frederick Christian Wellstood, Records of the Manor of Henley in Arden, Warwickshire, page 91:
2. To grieve improperly.
   • Yet in a wondrous variety of ways it is possible for a griever to misgrieve. 2012, Arlie Russell Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, page 63:
   • Screaming, pain filled, and yearning for more peace yet none comes. All swept away, little pieces scattered to the water. I am perplexed here trapped between the lost and misgrieved. 2008, Sheri Nicole Karstok, Harbingers of Innocence, page 19:

Forms