misfit
Americanverb (used with or without object)
noun
-
something that fits badly, such as a garment that is too large or too small.
-
a person who is not suited or is unable to adjust to the circumstances of a particular situation.
She was a misfit in that job after her big promotion.
noun
-
a person not suited in behaviour or attitude to a particular social environment
-
something that does not fit or fits badly
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of misfit
Explanation
A person who just can't seem to fit in, no matter how hard they try, is called a misfit. If all of your friends are great dancers, but you are awkward and uncoordinated with no sense of rhythm, you might feel like a misfit. Often, people who are misfits as kids eventually find other misfits to be friends with: suddenly, because they've found a group that accepts them and makes them feel comfortable; they're not misfits anymore. In the early nineteenth century, the word misfit meant "a garment that fits badly," but by the end of the 1800s it had come to primarily mean "outcast" or "oddball." The fit in both cases is wrong, thus the prefix mis-, or "wrong."
Vocabulary lists containing misfit
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: mis-
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mis-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Employed but adrift, he seeks out Franca, a former girlfriend and fellow misfit in their school days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
And it’s natural to be upset at an author for poisoning the once-beautiful misfit haven she created.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2026
She knew what “The Muppet Show” star symbolized and recognized what she meant to her misfit youngest, a zaftig kid frequently chided for taking up too much space.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026
There is just enough character in the comedy to create stakes in the narrative; its misfit energy has fueled the screen’s bands of outsiders throughout the years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
“And what’s wrong with the doll, anyway? Why is it a misfit? It seems to adhere to the standards of a typical doll.”
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The topical, darkly funny, whip-smart series from Eric Kripke follows a band of vigilante misfits who fight to expose the all-powerful, corrupt conglomerate Vought International and its stable of villainous superheroes.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
Then she is offered a chance to travel with and document a group of hopeful misfits and hippies who are determined to be the first humans to see it rain on Mars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” still connects with so many people because it empowers its outcasts and misfits.
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2026
Mr. Hazzard also profiles the company’s intrepid misfits who would make the daring trip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
They are a unit of malcontents, a troop of social misfits.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Director Guillermo del Toro called him "one of the patron saints of all misfitted, weird, maladjusted, wonderful, miraculous oddities".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2023
Richmond’s mayor got busy hiring cranes, history birthed another amalgam, and the statues have wound up pared from six to a misfitted two: Ashe and Robert E. Lee.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2020
His life, his art, were sadly misfitted with masks—though Nietzsche says: "All that is profound loves the mask"; and the symbolism of the Orient completed the disintegration of his baffling personality.
From Ivory Apes and Peacocks by Huneker, James
If he can not persuade him to come to the dispensary and take medicine there is an end to the matter, and he may justly conclude that he is misfitted to his vocation.
From The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays 1909 by Howes, S. O. (Silas Orrin)
The nation may be misfitted with its laws, and need to change them: some particular corn law may hurt all industry, and it may be worth a thousand administrative blunders to get rid of it.
From The English Constitution by Bagehot, Walter
Bras have been misfitting for years; suppliers failing to approximate women’s actual shapes.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 26, 2018
Suddenly, all the misfitting parts of me came into an orderly pattern, and there wasn’t anything to lose by following it.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2014
When a two-suiter faces a misfitting hand, it is bad news for that side.
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2014
Through the body of their Freudian existence, O'Neill has rammed the misfitting dramatic skeleton of the Greek trilogy, Oresteia.
From Time Magazine Archive
With the misfitting door and cracked sides it is much like a sieve.
From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
