mistake
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
Etymology: From Middle English mistaken, from Old Norse mistaka (“to take in error, to miscarry”); equivalent to mis- + take. Cognate with Icelandic mistaka (“to mistake”), Swedish missta (“to mistake”) (before apocope misstaga).
The noun, which replaced earlier mistaking, is derived from the verb. Compare Swedish misstag (“mistake”, noun), Faroese mistak (“mitake”, noun), Icelandic mistak (“mistake”, noun).
Base: take
Affixes: mis-
Inflected forms:
form: mistakes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: mistaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: mistook
pos: verb
tags: past
form: mistaken
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: mistakes
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness.
My father’s purposes have been mistook;
The reigning error of his life was, that he mistook the love for the practice of virtue, and was indeed not so much a good man, as the friend of goodness.
Because I don't want to know
I didn't want to know
I just didn't want to know
I just didn't want
Mistook the nods for an approval
Just ignore the smoke and smile
gloss: To misunderstand (someone).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Miſtake me not, my Lord, ’tis not my meaning / To raze one Title of your Honour out.
[…] at last she so evidently demonstrated her Affection to him to be much stronger than what she bore her own Son, that it was impossible to mistake her any longer.
gloss: To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: Impoſe me to what penance your inuention / Can lay vpon my ſinne, yet ſinn’d I not / But in miſtaking.
1720, Jonathan Swift, “Letter to a Young Clergyman” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Charles Elliot, 1784, Volume 10, pp. 6-7,
No gentleman thinks it is safe or prudent to send a servant with a message, without repeating it more than once, and endeavouring to put it into terms brought down to the capacity of the bearer; yet, after all this care, it is frequent for servants to mistake, and sometimes occasion misunderstandings among friends […]
"Bah!" said the Englishwoman: "what knight ever feared cold? Besides, you mistake; the night is warm, and you look so handsome in your gown."
There is also a chancellor, — no, I mistake, — a chandler and green-grocer, with his hands full of warts; […]
gloss: To take or choose wrongly.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
rare
examples: The better act of purposes mistook / Is to mistake again; though indirect, / Yet indirection thereby grows direct,
The Spear with erring Haste mistook its way,
But plung’d in Eniopeus’ Bosom lay.
gloss: An error.
pos: noun
examples: There were too many mistakes in the test, that unfortunately you failed.
He always did mistakes on purpose.
He, that would write exactly, muſt avoid a Barbarous Pronunciation, and conſider for facility, or thorow miſtake, many words are not ſounded after the beſt dialect. Such as […] Wun, one.
1877, Henry Heth, quoting Robert E. Lee, in "Causes of the Defeat of Gen. Lee's Army at the Battle of GettysburgOpinions of Leading Confederate Soldiers.", Southern Historical Society Papers (1877), editor Rev. J. WM. Jones http://books.google.com/books?id=iDIFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA292&dq=lee+%22mistakes+were+made%22&hl=en&ei=fchaTbu4L8L98AaVs4n-DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=lee%20%22mistakes%20were%20made%22&f=false
After it is all over, as stupid a fellow as I am can see that mistakes were made. I notice, however, that my mistakes are never told me until it is too late.
gloss: A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard-to-hit location, but instead ends up in an easy-to-hit place.
pos: noun
Related words: mistaken
Derived words: mistakability
mistakable
mistakeable
mistake fare
mistaker
mistake windmills for giants
unmistakable
and no mistake
by mistake
calculated mistake
category mistake
honest mistake
make a mistake
make no mistake
misfuck
mistakeful
mistakeless
mistakeproof
Wards Mistake
Translations: