misknow

[mis-noh]

verb (used with object)

misknew, misknown, misknowing. 

1. to fail to understand or recognize; misunderstand.

   to misknow the problem.

Other Word Forms

• misknowledge noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of misknow¹

First recorded in 1250–1300, misknow is from the Middle English word misknowen. See mis- ¹, know ¹

Example Sentences

Misknow, mis-nō′, v.t. to misapprehend.—n.

From Project Gutenberg

Byron did not misknow himself, nor misapprehend the most marked turn of his own character when he wrote the lines— I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the universe and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

From Project Gutenberg

It would be greatly to misknow Gibbon to suppose that his studies at Lausanne were restricted to the learned languages.

From Project Gutenberg

He also scolds Bacon for being afraid that Buckingham's height of fortune might make him "misknow himself."

From Project Gutenberg

Whatever real excellence he might misknow, you had but to let it stand before him, soliciting new examination from him: none surer than he to recognize it at last, and to pay it all his dues, with the arrears and interest on them.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• confuse 
• miscalculate 
• misconstrue 
• misinterpret 
• misjudge 
• misread 
• overestimate 
• overlook 
• underestimate