Dictionary

misnegotiate en · VERB

Etymology

From mis- + negotiate.

Meanings

1. To make a mistake when trying to make one's way over (difficult terrain); to misstep or stumble when trying to avoid (obstacles).
   • Back in 1913 for instance, a driver named Jack Tower misnegotiated the southwest, and overturned in the south chute after exiting the turn. 2005, Terry Reed, Indy: The Race and Ritual of the Indianapolis 500:
   • Mims giggled as, upon their arrival home, her high heels misnegotiated the threshold and she tripped. 2017, Sheelagh Kelly, A Different Kind of Love:
   • If they missed seeing one, or if they misnegotiated their path around another, we would be bounced roughly into the air. 2004, Will Johnson, The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain, page 124:
   • While returning home from Haskell, John drove upon his friend, Wilda Medford, who had misnegotiated Red Hill and his car had overturned. 2005, Johney Larned, Though Silent They Speak: The Larned Family History, page 258:
   • She risked looking back just as she reached the porch, and she tripped and fell, not because she had misnegotiated her footing, but because she was shocked at what Shawn was doing. 2005, Brandon Bennett, Moon in Gemini, page 79:
2. To cope with or handle badly.
   • Thus, as a snapshot of a cultural moment, the controversy resulting from Ciegossordomudos's videos figures as a lesson in national identity and on how cultural codes are misnegotiated in contemporary Colombian society. 2017, Andrea Fanta, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, Chloe Rutter-Jensen, Territories of Conflict, page 196:
   • Aspects of the gross or gross-reflecting state itself become compromised, misnegotiated, misnavigated, and misdigested, hobbling the state in various ways. 2017, Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow, page 414:
   • But his decision misnegotiates the Peircian action-step. 2021, John R. Shook, Sami Paavola, Abduction in Cognition and Action, page 143:
   • Although the protagonists of his films often misnegotiate risk, putting themselves recklessly in the path of psychotic killers, Argento navigates the professionally dangerous waters of genre cinema with elegance and intelligence. 2012, Elena M. Past, Methods of Murder:
3. To argue or represent one's position badly when coming to an agreement.
   • And this misnegotiated agreement contained what in my view were greatly inflated claims by BookCrafters. 1999, Sol Stein, Bankruptcy: A Feast for Lawyers, page 241:
   • He feels straight fees can be so seriously misnegotiated that profitability does not necessarily follow. 1980, Marketing & Media Decisions - Volume 15, Issues 1-6, page 120:
   • It's worth it, because your agent can easily get you more than 10 percent more than you would have gotten yourself, and you won't have a nagging feeling that you misnegotiated your deal. 2002, Alex Epstein, Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made, page 236:

Forms