Dictionary

misspeed en · VERB

Etymology

From mis- + speed.

Meanings

1. To fail in an attempt to speed something along.
   • Is there anything in which the nurse has failed? the hostess come short? the huntress missped? the pretty waiter-girl blundered? 1874, Julie P. Smith, Ten Old Maids: And Five of Them Were Wise, and Five of Them Were Foolish, page 369:
   • I think a majority of collisions on the water arise from an officer, as the common thing is, misspeeding himself, or giving an order to port when he means to say starboard, or from a man at the helm who has been there for some time with nothing to do specially suddenly getting an order and shoving his wheel the wrong way. 1908, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Hearings, page 65:
   • Now all my grief has come to naught, my plans have all missped; All that I see is injury and misery widespread. 1964, Juan Ruiz, Elisha Kent Kane, The Book of Good Love of the Archpriest of Hita, Jean Ruiz, page 143:
   • "Weep for yourselves," he said, And our eyes are full of tears; But ' tis for our plans missped, Not for our wasted years. 1956, Henri Ghéon, The Mystery of the Finding of the Cross: A Play in Three Acts, page 86:

Forms